Page 168 of Push

“I promise.”

“Promises, shromises. I’d rather you come home, and we skip all the stupid talking and go straight to movie night,” I said, only half joking. “We’ll find some murder mystery, and I’ll snuggle up to you with my eyes closed. We can have popcorn. And, if you’re very good, I’ll even pretend to yawn so I can sneak my arm around your shoulders… And then…” I lowered my voice to a husky whisper. “We pick up where we left off outside the study.”

“Tobes…” she groaned.

“Second base sounds better than talking, huh?” It sounded a hell of a lot better to me. This talk of Gwen’s sounded like one of those “I’m in love with some wanker called Romeo, and you’re old news, Dentist Boy”kinds of talks. No thanks.

Gwen sighed. “Honestly, yeah, that sounds amazing. But I’ve avoided part of this conversation for too long. Before she buried her problems in a few drinks, Marnie told me flat out that this is something you need to know.”

“And you can’t tell me over the phone?”

“No…”

Not a good sign. I slumped in the rocking chair. “Gwen, why does it feel like everything will change when we have this…talk?”

“Because it will.”

My gut clenched to hear her honesty. “But I don’t want everything to change,” I admitted. “Not now. Not when things are finally getting better between us.”

“Me neither. And I feel like an absolute hypocrite saying this, but we can’t run away from our problems forever.”

Gwen said goodbye, and I spent the next ten minutes in a tidying frenzy. I couldn’t stand still. I was on edge. Her secrets were some of the harshest realities I’d ever faced. Learning about the shit Ian had put her through was like getting hit with a truck. I was a dead man if she was worried about thistalk. Something bigger than a truck was hurtling toward me. I was about to get hit by a damn freight train.

I’d rearranged the magazines under the coffee table and was lighting one of Gwen’s fancy candles when I heard the taxi pull up outside. My gaze drifted out the front window to the flowering crepe myrtle fluttering over the streetlights. Only a hazy flicker broke through. Gwen shut the taxi door and headed up the sidewalk as a black SUV pulled up behind her. A beefed-up guy in a suit climbed out.

Who the hell was that?

Her hand on the front gate, Gwen paused on the sidewalk and shot a glare over her shoulder. I squinted. The guy seemed…familiar. She waved him off, snapping something at him, but all he did was lounge against the front of the car, smiling, his eyes focused too closely on her as she headed up the path to the house.

When Gwen threw open the front door, I stood in the alcove, villain-style in the dark, with my arms folded and a frown on my face to hide the fact my chest was ripping down the middle.

My worst nightmare was coming true. She was getting rid of me and trading up. God, why did it have to be some dickhead with a penis enlargement for an SUV?

Gwen screamed, flying back against the wall. “Toby!” She pressed her hand to her chest, gasping. “You scared the absolute shit out of me!”

“Who is he?” I asked, my voice completely flat.

“That’s, uh… That’s Romeo.” She grimaced.

“Are you only walking in this door to tell me you’re walking out again?”

“No! Jesus, Toby…” She pressed her palms into tired eyes.

“He’s waiting out there like some smug shit while you pack up and go, is that it?” The dark edge of jealousy burning inside my chest quickly morphed into something pathetic and crumbly. “Do you want me to beg? Is that it? I’m not too fucking proud.” Desperate, that was what I was. I wasn’t too proud to admit it, either. If I lost Gwen again, I losteverything.

“Toby, what are you—stop that!” Horror widened Gwen’s eyes when I fell to my knees in front of her. “Get up!”

I ignored her. I latched my arms around her legs and dragged her close to me, stuffing my face in her scratchy wool skirt. “Please don’t leave me for some bastard called Romeo or Elias wearing his stupid loafers. Please, Gwen.” I hugged her closer. “Ilove you more than anything in the world. I’m nothing without you.”

She wriggled out of my grasp. She fell to the floor in front of me and cupped my cheeks with her hands. “Now, you listen here, mister,” she commanded. “I’m not leaving you. Ever. That idiot out front is following me.”

My gaze snapped up. He’d been…what?I wasn’t sure I’d ever turned a glare that hard on Gwen in my life.

“He’s been following me for four days,” she hurried on. “I haven’t figured out why yet. I thought maybe it had to do with Kayleigh or her lawyer… I don’t know.” She tugged a hand through her hair and exhaled a breath. “I really don’t know.”

All the miserable emotions that had sunk me to my knees were hardening. Anger curled around my throat. “That man out the front has been following you forfour days?”I bit out. “And you didn’ttellme? You didn’t call the fuckingcops?”

“N-no.” Gwen cringed. “I didn’t want you to worry.” Her excuse was weak.

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