Page 89 of Four Dates and A Forever
“I didn’t expect him to go at you so hard.”
Her hand went to her throat in a defensive motion. “But you did expect him to go at me?”
Now that he thought about it, he knew he’d screwed up. He knew Axel, knew that he never liked to lose a fight and knew exactly how the guy would handle his wife walking out on their marriage. But instead of removing himself from the situation, Rhett had placed himself smack dab in the middle. No, it was worse, he’d placed himself solely on Axel’s side. On the side that hurt Elsie. And he’d done it all without a second thought because he was still reeling from his own divorce and selfishly not thinking of anyone’s problems but his own.
“Els, I am so sorry that I hurt you.”
He took another step forward and she backed up until she bumped into Gage. Her eyes went around the circle, from the wives to his brothers, the entire Easton clan, who were there to support him. There was no one to support her and his family was reminding her of that fact. He knew she felt trapped.
He offered her his hand. “Why don’t we go into Owen’s office?”
She looked at his hands as if they were a deadly snake and he was certain she wouldn’t take it, which she didn’t, but she did move closer to him—then around him, pushing through the crowd that was pushing closer to get a picture of the woman Rhett Easton had made cry. Because she was crying. He could tell she hadn’t figured it out yet, and when she did, she was going to be so mad, because she hated it when she cried. But there they were, streaming down her cheeks, a steady fall that had his gut twisting painfully.
She’d made it to the back corridor, near the employee’s entrance, clearly aware that Rhett was right on her heels. She stopped. Her shoulders drawn, her gaze on her feet, it was as if her entire body had curled in on itself. And when she turned to face him,godwhen she turned, his heart broke into a million pieces.
“God, babe, don’t cry.” He ran his thumb down her cheek.
“Is Axel really your new drummer?” she whispered.
Rhett paused, seeing how everything would look to her in this moment and every wild, rash, from-the-hip decision he’d ever made came rushing back with a force that knocked the wind out of him. How he’d walk the line, procrastinate big decisions, even disappearing when things got hard. He was going to lose her and it was all his fault.
His heart gave an unsteady beat. “Hell, no! We hired someone else last week.”
She worried her lower lips and gave the slightest nod of the head. “But he was a viable option?”
He thought back to Gage’s question when he’d first brought up Axel as a possibility and suddenly he understood the gravity of his decision. Or non-decision as it were. Every show, every practice, every jam session in his home studio that Elsie had handcrafted, would include the asshole who broke her heart. Who cheated on her and used her kindness against her.
Here he’d been envisioning a future with her, and her ex would have been right in the middle of everything. He’d like to think he wouldn’t have hired Axel, but if push had come to shove, and they hadn’t been able to find an equally as talented alternative, what would Rhett have done? And what would he have told Elsie?
“No,” he said confidently. “I wouldn’t have hired Axel. I wouldn’t have let him step foot in our house.”
“Your house,” she whispered. “It stopped being my house that day in your shower. I’ll pack my things and be out by tomorrow morning.”
“What about the shoot?”
“What about it?”
“You can’t give that up because of this.” Panic set in. He wasn’t just losing her, she was already gone.
“What do you expect me to do? Hang up magazine photos of a house that I thought I’d spend the rest of my life in with the guy I thought I’d spend the rest of my life with? Be reminded every day that I once again bet on the wrong person? That I let my emotions cloud my good sense?”
“I can make this better.”
“How? The way to make it better was to be up-front and honest with me. Even if you forgot about the lawyers, you should have told me you were considering hiring Axel for your tour so I could be prepared to run into him when I came to shows to support you.” She choked on her emotion. “How stupid am I? I mean, you get to go off and live your dream while I get to stay behind and figure out how to revive mine. Again.”
“I can fix this,” he said. “I know I screwed up, but I can fix this. I promise, I just need you to believe me.”
“I’m trying to, but it’s really hard,” she said. “I don’t know what’s the truth and what’s you just being Rhett, the guy who would rather say nothing than hurt someone’s feelings. Love takes trust, Rhett, and you broke my trust. You broke my heart.” She’d stopped wiping at her tears and let them fall, each one more gut-wrenching than the last. “Then again, we’re good at breaking rules. I shouldn’t be surprised that you broke the last one.”
She shot him a devastating look—a look he’d never forget—and then walked out the back door, slamming it behind her. He somehow made it to the exit right as she disappeared around the corner. In that moment he knew that whatever Axel had done was nothing compared to what Rhett had done. He’d gained her trust, then obliterated it. He’d completely devastated her world.
He dropped down on his haunches and pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes, knowing she was gone and never coming back.
A few seconds, a few minutes, hell a lifetime could have passed and Rhett hunched there replaying every step and decision that led him to the moment when he lost the woman he loved.
“You going to just let her go?” Gage asked quietly.
Rhett looked up to find his brothers standing behind him, their expressions as serious as the situation.
