Page 94 of Meant to Be
“I went to see her at lunch and the letters were on her desk.”
“Are you sure she lied? It doesn’t seem smart to tell someone you don’t have something when you do and then bring them out.”
“They were there. I saw them.” Why did he have to defend himself to his own sister? He saw what he saw. “How else would she have them if she didn’t get them?”
“Maybe her mom mailed them to her.”
A kernel of guilt nagged at him. He hadn’t considered that.
“Did you allow her to explain?”
Mitch bristled at Lexie’s tone. “Yes. Her response was to blame me. To tell me how pathetic she thinks I am.”
“Pathetic?”
He was pleased to see Lexie take offense to that.
“Why would she say that?”
He shook his head and considered grabbing Sydney’s moonshine and finishing it off. “She told me she pitied me because I let what happened in the military, what happened to Brian, define me. She said I was broken.” She wasn’t wrong, but it had been a stab to his heart to hear her say it.
Lexie winced. Not a “that was a terrible thing for Sydney to say” wince but a “she’s right” wince. Fortunately, those weren’t the words that came out of her mouth. “Of course, she’s wrong. If she was right, you wouldn’t have let her back into your life and fallen in love with her again.”
“I don’t love her,” he said with a little too much vehemence.
One of Lexie’s sherry-colored brows rose as she studied him for a long moment. “Were you hoping to recapture the feelings of the past and it wasn’t the same? Because I can tell you have, or had, feelings for her.”
He shook his head. “If that were the case, it would have been easy to keep her at a distance because she’s not the same.”
“So you fell in love with her all over again?”
Mitch shot her an annoyed glare.
“Come on, Mitch. Anyone can see you have feelings for her.”
He let out an expletive. “From the moment I met her, it was like… like my heart was tied to hers. When I see her, it’s like that string gets tugged and I’m pulled to her.”
Lexie’s expression turned dreamy, a sure sign that what he’d said was sappy. But it was true. It was like there was an invisible bond keeping his heart irrevocably tied to hers.
Then she cocked her head to the side. “You know, I always thought your inability to have a lasting relationship was because you wouldn’t let anyone in, but maybe, it’s because none of the other women were Sydney. Maybe you two are meant to be.”
“No.” Although Mitch had already suspected that his heart had settled on Sydney. However, their time had come and gone. Again.
“I’m so sorry, Mitch.”
He shrugged.
“Maybe there’s still hope?”
He glared at her. He had only one heart, and there was only so much heartache it could take. His had met its limit.
“Hear me out. What if I’m right and she only just got the letters? That means she didn’t lie.”
“So why not just tell me that?”
“Knowing you, you probably went off the Richter scale as soon as you saw them. Sometimes you do that when you feel like you’ve been deceived. Did she know how you felt or did you treat her like all your other women?”
Mitch looked away.
