Page 39 of Love, Hate, Love

Next, I called my brother, who had never been overly wordy. After a rudimentary check that I still had a pulse, he was done. I then called Cassie, who was in the middle of trying to calm her mother over losing the tulips because of some global shortage. Cassie’s mother was almost as bad about this wedding as Cassie herself.

I hung up knowing there was one last call that had to be made. I hadn’t spoken to Greg in two weeks. I hadn’t missed him. In truth, I didn’t even think of him that much. Didn’t that say it all? If there was one silver lining in this mess, it was really showing me which relationships truly mattered to me. It might’ve been time to really break it off, let him move on and not wait out a year, but it was hard to break up with an audience.

But was it fair to judge a relationship under this kind of duress? Everything had been so up-in-the-air crazy that I’d barely had time to think about anything beyond getting through the next moment.

I dialed.

“Hello?” the familiar voice answered. I’d warned him I wouldn’t have my own phone, so he’d probably answered at least five spam calls by now.

“Hi, it’s me.” I tried to sound upbeat and as much like my pre-conviction self as possible, while avoiding looking in Kade’s direction. He was surely judging this too.

“Hey,” Greg said.

That was it—one word and I knew something was wrong. All I could hear in his voice was dread. Had he been getting the spillover of my conviction too? He’d always said he wasn’t getting fallout, but I’d suspected he was lying to protect me. There was no way my mother had and he’d gotten off scot-free.

“Is everything okay? Did something happen with your business?” It wasn’t like I was available to call and stay informed anymore.

“No, everything is okay withthat.”

Withthat.So what was the problem? I looked over at Kade, who was too busy pretending to watch something outside to give me a glimpse of his judgment in action.

“There’s something we need to talk about,” Greg said, sounding graver with each word. I could picture him now in his crisp shirt, looking out his apartment window as he shuffled from foot to foot.

He was never good at spitting things out, and what I was going to say next wouldn’t help him out.“Just so you know, you’re on speaker and we have company.”

“Company?”

“Kade, the guy that owns the ranch. I told you about him.” Hopefully he had enough sense to not launch into any details about what I’d added onto that description, the way Cassie had.

There was a pause before he audibly sighed. It was one of those long, drawn-out types that always meant something was wrong.

“You should take me off speaker,” he said.

I didn’t bother looking at Kade. He wouldn’t do me any favors. “Yeah, I can’t do that because of the terms of my deal with the court.”

“Oh.” Another sigh, this one louder than the last. “Look, I didn’t really want to have this conversation with other people listening, but it has to be had.”

I had a sinking feeling I knew what was coming next, and I didn’t want an audience. Greg was going to break up with me, and if it were any other time, any other way, I wasn’t sure I would’ve cared. I’d given him an out before I came here.

But now? I wasn’t capable of having another round of public humiliation just yet, but that wasn’t going to matter. Kade wasn’t looking at me, but I could see his profile and he was listening intently.

“What needs to be said that wasn’t said before?”

For the past month, he’d told me over and over again how he didn’t want to break up. But no, he had to do it now, with Kade listening to every detail.

Or maybe not?

Without a glance in my direction, Kade straightened and walked out of the office. He shut the door behind him. It didn’t look that thick that he couldn’t still hear, but it was more grace than I’d imagined he’d give me.

I tried to prepare myself for what Greg was about to say.

“Well? What is it?” If he was breaking up with me, I needed him to spit it out now.

“I’ve been thinking about it, and a year is a long time to be apart from someone.”

“I believe I said that to you two weeks ago, when you were assuring me that I was the love of your life. What was it you said? Oh, I remember. That you couldn’t live without me, couldn’t imagine breathing without me, and that you would wait an eternity for me to come back to you.”

If my doubts had been merely niggling before, now they were punching me square in the face. Greg had always been the guy that looked perfect on paper. So perfect that I’d ignored the occasional twitch from my gut that said no one wasthatgood. I was paying for it in pure humiliation now. This was so bad that even Kade didn’t want to witness it.

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