Page 4 of Four Dates and A Forever
He pointed to the unmade master bed, which looked as if there’d been a wrestling match on it.Shehadn’t even slept there.She’dslept in the guest room since she wasn’t quite ready to face her marital bed.
His eyes softened and he took a step toward her. “You look great, Els.”
She didn’t know why, maybe it was the use of her long-ago nickname or the simple compliment, but she choked up a tiny bit. Steeling herself from his infamous charm, she crossed her arms. His gaze dropped to her cleavage, so she tugged the silky robe tightly around her.
“Why are you here?” she asked.
“Right back at you.” He brushed past her to the bed, where he picked up a shirt and slid it over his impressive pecs. “You’re supposed to be at Harriet’s.”
“Yeah, that isn’t going to happen.” Last spring, her mom had moved in with her grandmother, and Elsie had more interest in having a mammogram than she did seeing her mom. She loved her mom, she really did, but right then she was so mad at her she could cry. Most people usually cried on their mom’s shoulder. Elsie and Faye had never had that kind of relationship.
“You’re supposed to be in your own shower across town,” she pointed out.
“Yeah, that isn’t going to happen either.”
Something in his eyes told her that she wasn’t the only one who got screwed in the love department. While her divorce had been nasty, it had been private. Rhett’s divorce had been plastered all over the news. So had his every conquest since.
“Well, this reunion was super fun.” She turned and walked toward the door. “After you dry off, you can pack your things and leave.”
“I was going to say the same to you.”
“This is my house,” she said primly over her shoulder.
“Actually, according to the agreement, in thirty days it’s my house.”
She came to a full stop, nearly tripping over her feet. She spun around. “What do you mean?”
“I bought the house.” He looked at her as if she should be privy to this information. “And Axel and I have an agreement that I get to stay here until escrow closes.”
“Axel and I have an agreement, approved by a judge, that I own half the house until it sells. And I haven’t agreed to sell my half yet.”
Rhett pondered this for such a long moment Elsie knew that this was all news to him. “Axel implied it was all worked out.”
“Axel is a lying piece of shit. And he promised me that I had until the end of the summer to list the house.”
“It looks like we have ourselves a problem. Two binding contracts.”
“We could always ask the judge what he thinks.” But even as she said it she knew that with Rhett’s lawyers she’d once again find herself on the losing end of a stressful battle.
His eyes went soft, and so did his voice. And this time when he stepped toward her, she didn’t back away. “Do you really want to go back to court? I know that it’s the last place I want to revisit. Plus, I’d never do that to you.”
She swallowed hard. Not only did he know she was bluffing, he knew his lawyers would pick apart every line and dot of her divorce papers and destroy her in court. “You wouldn’t?”
Something flashed across his face, something she couldn’t quite decipher but she could have sworn it was unpleasant surprise. “Did you really believe I would?”
“I don’t know what I believe anymore.”
His eyes never left hers. “You can believe me.”
“Thank you,” she whispered, even though her trust well was in the negative. “The truth is—” And this was where it got embarrassing. Unable to hold his gaze, she studied her freshly painted pink toes. “My place isn’t ready for another few months and I don’t have anywhere else to go.”
“What about Harriet’s?”
She shrugged. “It’s complicated. What about your place in LA?”
“It’s complicated,” he said.
She let out a frustrated breath. They were both in an Axel-derived situation with no way out.
