Page 83 of Accidental Mile High Daddy
I pressed my lips into a line.
“And let’s not pretend this is about protecting you,” Jules added, leaning forward onto the counter again. “He’s never had your best interest in mind. So why would he start now?”
I didn’t have an answer for that.
I didn’t have an answer foranyof it.
“Fuck,” I choked, heart pounding hard, the weight of it all starting to catch up with me. My elbows hit the counter, my face falling forward into my hands. “I—fuck, Jules, what the hell am I supposed to do here? Believe him instead? Backtrack, fall over backward apologizing? It’s not like he offered me an explanation?—”
“Si. Babe,” she huffed, a little bit of her patience slipping. “He probably didn’t offer you one because you wouldn’t have believed him anyway. You let Ryan get too into your head.”
“I know.” The backs of my eyes burned, hormones taking over, emotions running at full force every time I had them because of the two little gremlins growing inside of me. “I know.I know.”
I sank back against the cushioned barstool, wrapping my arms around myself like they could hold me together.
“I love him,” I croaked. “I think I’ve loved him since Tulum. And I don’t—I—What do Ido?”
“Youtrust?—”
“But love doesn’tmeantrust.” I wiped under my eyes, hating the dampness I found. “I don’t know if I’ll ever have both, not with him. Not after what happened at the beginning.”
“Do you think he hasn’t been trying?”
“No, he has. That’s the worst part,” I said, voice cracking. “He’s been showing up and saying the right things and being there for every single thing I need him to be there for, and I still can’t stop waiting for the other shoe to drop. I don’t feelsecure.”
“Because of Ryan.” Jules' finger stabbed into the linoleum on top of the counter. “Not Matt. Yeah, Matt fucked up early on, but the reason you don’t feel like you can trust him to be the man he claims he is, is because of Ryan.”
God, she was right. She wasso right. “Yeah,” I whispered. “I-I want to go back. I want to fix it. But I don’t even know ifitis even a thing to fix anymore.”
For a long second, Jules didn’t speak, just watched me with her lips pressed into a thin line. Then, gently, as if she was trying not to startle a spooked animal, she said, “I’m not going to tell you what to do.”
I swallowed, my throat closing in.
“But if I were you? I’d reach out. Not to fight, not to punish him or whatever the hell else your hormonal pregnant brain wants to do. Just open the door,” she sighed. “Ask him what really happened with Zach’s mom and give him the space to tell the truth. If you want to trust him, that’s got to be where it starts now.”
I nodded.
Right. Okay. That madesense. Even with everything a mess and the anger still simmering in my system.
I just had to do it.
Chapter 28
Matt
The Tokyo expansion had been greenlit.
After months of negotiation, back-and-forth legal wrangling, late-night calls with board members and zoning consultants, mytrip, it was done. A new international hub, a deal worth more money for the company than I knew what to do with, and the stamp of approval from every smug executive who’d said it was too ambitious.
This was the kind of win that was supposed to feel like the world’s sweetest victory. Instead, it felt like static.
Congratulations rolled in. Clinking glasses and obligatory toasts with overpriced whiskey and champagne. I laughed where I needed to, nodded along to conversations I wasn’t listening for, but I hadn’t been present. Not really. I should have felt something — pride, relief, adrenaline,something. But all I felt was hollow.
We ended up at one of those rooftop lounges in Midtown where everyone looked like they were trying too hard or too little. I’d been here before, knew the script, knew to smile at the right people and let others buy me drinks, knew to pretend I wasn’t calculating which minute I could slip away withoutdrawing attention so I could go home and crawl into Zach’s bed with him like I’d found myself doing for the last few nights.
Someone handed me a glass. Someone else clinked it against theirs. Across from me, one of the new hires to handle starting the expansion, a woman named Helena who seemed to be made of long legs and red lipstick, leaned in close to me.
“You should be celebrating,” she said, smiling up at me.
