Page 22 of Love, Hate, Love

“I’m done.”

“Not calling your boyfriend, or was that who didn’t answer?”

“I’m done. That’s all you need to know.”

What I knew better than anything was that this next year was going to be a constant lesson in humiliation and helplessness.

Chapter10

Kade

“That’s notthe way you should talk to your mother,” I said as Leah was just about to walk out of the office.

I had Melissa in the other room waiting for me, and for some reason I couldn’t explain, I felt more compelled to stay here and pick a fight with Leah. Why the hell was I bothering? It had nothing to do with me.

“My relationship with her is none of your business,” she shot back.

She was right; it wasn’t. And yet I still couldn’t let it go. Couldn’t leave this be. “If I have to sit and listen to you get fresh with a nice woman, it is.”

She spun, her gaze as sharp as the spear she probably wanted to stab me with right now. “Unless I’m trying to smuggle drugs onto your ranch, my relationships with anyone are none of your concern.”

Let her go. Let her leave.

I lost that mental battle and said, “Maybe you need to work on who you’ve grown up to be. Maybe that’s how you ended up here. You need to take some responsibility.”

“You have no idea the kind of responsibility I’ve taken or what I’ve done for the people I love, so stay out of it.”

And there it was, another glitch, a hint at something she was holding back.

“What’s that supposed to mean? What great deeds have you done that justify what you did?”

She stood there, silent, not showing an iota of guilt. How was this the girl I’d known? Could she really have changed that much in the last ten years? Nothing added up anymore, and I couldn’t let it go, ignore it, pretend it was lining up the way I used to.

“You’re right. I’m a horrible person.” She shrugged. “I’m going to go head back to my shed so I can think on all the wrongs I’ve done.” She turned toward the door.

“Leah.”

She kept walking.

“Leah!”

“What?” she snapped. She stopped but didn’t turn around to look at me.

“Is there something I need to know?” If there was, I needed her to tell me on a visceral level I couldn’t quite understand myself.

“No. I’m exactly the monster you think I am.” She walked out, leaving the door hanging wide open.

I stood there, staring after her, replaying every word in my head. There were too many wrong beats, whispers of something deeper going on. Hints that maybe the Leah I’d known was still there, even if I was chasing her away every single day she was here.

Melissa was waitingon the couch with a drink and a pout. I’d wanted her to leave the moment she arrived, and now having to be around her at all was making me think about giving up my house and sleeping in the barn. And why? Because she didn’t smell like strawberries and pineapple the way Leah did. Her hair wasn’t silky and soft like Leah’s. Her lips weren’t as full and rosy as Leah’s.

Even her voice as she said, “What took you so long?” sounded like a high-pitched squeal, as opposed to the soft sultriness of Leah’s voice.

I put a hand up when she motioned me toward the couch. “I’m really sorry, but I got an emergency work call. It’s something I have to go handle and it’s probably going to take me all night.”

“Oh no.” She got to her feet, heading toward me. “Is it something I can help with?”

I dodged out of her way. “No, it’s something I really need to focus on alone,” I said as she gaped at me. “You can sleep in my room and I’ll just grab my laptop and work in the guest bedroom.”

---