Page 89 of Dominate Me

Hope filled me and warmed me, thinking that Jensen had come back to talk to me, before recognition hit.

It was quickly replaced with irritation.

“You’ve gotta be freaking kidding me,” I muttered, setting my gun on the coffee table as I walked to the front door.

“Haley!” Timothy shouted, pounding on my door.

I unlocked and opened it quickly. His hand was still raised, ready to knock. I clearly opened it too fast because he tumbled inside the door, landing on his knees in the doorway.

“What in the heck are you doing here?” I asked, hands immediately going to my hips before I flicked one in the air. “Never mind. I don’t care why you’re here. You need to go.”

Awareness settled in his glazed-over eyes as he realized he was on his knees.

“Funny,” Timothy slurred and I cringed. Great, he was drunk. Or worse. “I don’t think I got down on my knees for you when I proposed.”

He hadn’t. I still bristled at the memory he gave me. Us, walking along the pier just down from the Inn. When we’d reached the end, he’d taken my hand and slipped a simple band with a tiny diamond on my finger and said, “Spend forever with me.”

I had loved the ring. I didn’t care that the diamond was so small it barely sparkled. I’d loved him with everything I had but, just like most moments since then, all of it was tainted with years of regret and failure.

“What are you doing here?” I asked Timothy again, not bothering to help him up.

His head dropped at my stern tone causing his sandy-blond hair to fall over his forehead, blocking his eyes from me. I didn’t move as he struggled back to his feet.

“I miss you,” he said, his gaze slowly roaming the entryway to my house before it lazily slid back to me. “I miss you so much, Haley.”

“You miss my income.”

“I made a mistake. A lot of them, I admit. But I wanted to come here tonight to talk to you. See if we can work things out between us.”

“Us?” I asked, arching a brow. “Or the lawsuit?”

He had the grace to flinch and stepped forward into my house. Before I could stop him he was too far inside to push him back out the front door. I should have done that while he was still on his knees. Kicked him in the chest and sent him sprawling onto the front porch.

He sighed and dragged a hand through his hair. It flopped all over before settling in its typical disheveled way. “Can we please talk?”

I had talked enough. For years I had tried to get through to him. Nothing worked then and nothing would now.

Still, like I always did when Timothy flashed his slightly crooked grin at me, I had a hard time saying no.

“It’s late, but I’ll give you a few minutes.” I shut the door and then frowned as it clicked. “Did you drive here...after you’ve been drinking?”

He huffed and headed toward the kitchen. He’d been here enough when we were dating and married that he knew his way around just as well as I did.

“Came back this weekend to see some old friends.” He called out, “Remember Dan and Mark? Mark’s bachelor party was tonight.”

That explained the drunkenness. Perhaps even him missing me.

I rolled my eyes and followed him. The sooner I listened to what he had to say the sooner he’d be gone. “Of course I remember them,” I said. Hard to forget them when we all went to high school together. “Are Mark and Tonya finally getting married?”

I found him digging through the liquor cabinet that only held tequila, a bottle of orange vodka, and Scotch that Jensen had brought over one night.

Timothy pulled out the Scotch and frowned as he read the label. “This is nice stuff.”

Five hundred dollars’ worth of nice. I didn’t explain.

He eyed the bottle and then me with as much speculation as he could muster before opening it and taking a swig.

Ugh.

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