Page 64 of Mending Hearts

“But you didn’t stay.”

“No, I didn’t stay. Four or five months into the tour, Katie came to visit, which she’d done a few times when the tour was relatively close. We didn’t have a lot of money. She showed up and broke up with me. Just…out of the blue. Ten years together, gone. So, I quit the tour and followed her home, here. She was packed, and had already taken a job on the other side of the country. Somehow, the relationship slipped through my fingers, and I didn’t even feel it going.”

“Why didn’t you just go back on that tour oranytour?” Mia’s voice was quiet in the dark room. I wanted to look at her, but I wasn’t sure I’d like what I saw.

“I dropped out, left them in the lurch, so getting a reference from them was tricky. My parents bought me the thrift shop as soon as I got back, before it was clear Katie wouldn’t change her mind and wouldn’t stay. For months, I thought she’d return, or admit she made a mistake. I was afraid to leave.”

“In case she came back?”

“Yeah.”

“She didn’t?” Puzzlement was clear in her tone.

“Never heard from her. Not once. Seeing her at the hospital a few months ago was the first time I’d seen her in eight years.”

“Wow,” Mia breathed out the word. “You don’t know why?”

I shook my head and realized she probably couldn’t see that in the dimly lit room. “No. At the time, she said we’d grown apart. But it was a bullshit reason. A total fabrication. I don’t know what happened, but the problem wasn’t that.”

She was quiet for a long time, and I wondered if I should admit Katie wanted to talk, maybe reconnect.

“That must have been really hard,” she whispered.

“It was, yeah.”

“And now, she’s back.”

“And now, she’s back.” I let a beat sit before wading in. “I ran into her today at the café when I was getting the iced tea.” I took a deep breath, sure she wasn’t going to like the next part. Mia might not want me beyond the next few months, but she was territorial right now. “She wants to get coffee and talk.”

“I don’t want you to.” Her response was almost instant, a hint of panic in her voice. “You can do whatever you want when I’m gone. But when I’m here, I don’t want you to see her. Other than our appointments, I don’t want you to see her. Okay? Can you promise me?”

I turned onto my side and stared down, brushing her hair back. “Whatever was between Katie and me ended eight years ago.”

“It’s fine.” She shook her head and bit her lip. “You can do whatever you like when I’m gone.” She met my gaze, her blue-green eyes glittering. “But you don’t go near her while I’m still here, okay?”

“Mia—”

She wrapped her hand around the back of my neck and pulled me down for a kiss. “My birthday ends in ten minutes, and I don’t want this conversation to be what I remember about it.” She shifted so she was under me. “Sing to me.”

I searched her face for a minute, at the naked vulnerability shining back. God, I hated hurting her. I’d told her the truth, and I was already regretting it. “I’m sorry, Mia.”

“Don’t.” She shook her head and pressed a fingertip to my lips. “In five or six months, you can do whatever you want. I will be. But right now, you’re mine. You’re mine.”

Five or six months.

I wanted to protest, to somehow convince her she didn’t need to go anywhere in a few months, that I’d take whatever this was with her over anything I’d ever had with anyone else.

But she didn’t want forever; she wanted just for now.

I touched my forehead to hers, our gazes locked. “Okay, Mini. Whatever you want.”

Then we were kissing, and I was singing a muffled “Happy Birthday,” but there was a desperate edge to everything that hadn’t been there earlier in the night.

Between us, a clock ticked.

Chapter Nineteen

Mia

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