Page 60 of Then Came Love
JORDAN CLUNG TO Jax, unable to believe he was there.
“I’m sorry, Jordan. I never meant to hurt you.”
How could he think he was the one to hurt her when all she wanted was to be with him? She looked up through the blur of tears. “You didn’t. It’s over.”
Confusion rose in his eyes.
“I broke up with Todd—” Sobs stole her voice, sadness and anger twisting together, Todd’s hateful words slaying her anew. Coco whimpered, rubbing against her leg, sparking more tears. How did he know she’d need her, too?
Jax pulled her into his arms again. “I’m sorry.” His words were filled with as much grief as relief.
“I just didn’t expect it to hurt so bad.”
“You were together for a long time. It’s going to take some getting used to.”
“Not for him. The arrogant, sleazy, two-timing bastard.”
His jaw clenched, and she felt the rest of his muscles flexing, too, as if he were readying for a fight. “Why don’t we go inside?”
She led him to the living room, but he stopped at the entrance, his concerned gaze moving over the shards of glass and chunks of broken candles on the floor by the fireplace.
“Coco, sit,” he said sharply, and she plopped onto her butt beside him. “Was Todd here? Did he do this?”
“No. I did. I just haven’t…I’ll clean it up. Sorry.” She headed for the hall closet, but he gently grabbed her wrist, drawing her back to his side.
“I’ll get it. You stay with Coco. I don’t want you getting glass in your feet.”
She told him where the vacuum was, and as he cleaned up the mess, she loved up Coco, trying to pull herself together.
“Thank you,” she said as he put away the vacuum. “I’m sorry I’m such a mess.”
“Don’t be sorry. You’re beautiful, not a mess, and you have every right to be sad.”
“You don’t know the half of it.” Anger bubbled up inside her again. “I’m sad one minute, and I’m so angry the next, I want to…” Her hands fisted.
“Throw something. I know.” He stepped into her path, taking her hands and unfurling her fingers. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“Maybe? I don’t know. It’s embarrassing, and I hate to dump it on you.”
“You’re not dumping anything on me.” He led her to the couch, and Coco climbed onto the cushion beside her, resting her chin on Jordan’s lap. “I care about you, and you shouldn’t keep that much anger bottled up. But I’m not sure throwing candles is the healthiest way to get rid of it.”
“That’s so embarrassing. I can’t even believe I did it. I swear I’m not usually like this. But we were together for so long, and I know things weren’t perfect, but I thought they were still good enough that if I ended things, he’d be sad or hurt, but when I told him I wanted to break up, he said horrible things to me.”
“Is that because you told him about me?” The guilt in his voice was tangible.
“No. He didn’t even ask why I was ending things, which also hurt and pissed me off. He just laid into me, saying he was relieved and that he’d only planned to marry me because I was the marrying kind and I would look good on his arm. He was so mean and spiteful, I felt like I was talking to a different person than the guy I knew.”
Jax’s jaw clenched. “I’d like to get my hands on that arrogant prick.”
“He said he was sick of dealing with my issues anyway, and I couldn’t figure out what he was talking about. I never complained to him about work or anything. I didn’t even complain about spending holidays without him, or when he canceled our weekends together, until last weekend. I did get upset about that because I scheduled all those appointments for us, and you opened my eyes to how badly he was taking me for granted.”
“I know I should say I’m sorry, but sweetheart, it would have killed me to see you marry a man who treated you so badly.”
“I’m glad you got me to own up to the truth. I was miserable for a long time, but I was also scared of losing the one person who had been there for me for so long. But now I wish I’d ended it years ago, because when I asked him what he meant by my issues, he said…” Tears flooded again, and she choked out, “All that shit about your dead sister.”
Jax gritted out, “Fucking asshole.” He gathered her in his arms, holding her tight. “He’s out of your life now, and he’ll never be able to hurt you again.”
“It gets worse,” she said through her tears. “I called him Sunday morning, because I knew I was done and wanted to end things. But he didn’t call me back until a couple of hours ago. He said he was too busy with his client in Atlanta. Then, at the end of our conversation, after all the other hateful things he said, he told me he never went to Atlanta. He said he took his secretary to Cabo for a long weekend. And he didn’t stop there. The bastard told me about all the other times he’d taken women on trips. When I asked him why he cheated on me, he said it was because there are women you marry and women you fuck, and they’re never one and the same.” She dragged air into her lungs, pain slicing through her anew. “And I know he’s not lying, because when I called his office yesterday morning, a temp answered, and she said she was filling in while his secretary was in Cabo. So many things make sense now. Like why he insisted on using condoms when I’m on birth control. God, I feel so stupid. How could I have been with him for so long and not known?”
“You are not stupid.” Jax held her face between his hands, wiping her tears with the pads of his thumbs. “You are a smart, trusting woman, and what he did has nothing to do with you. Cheating is what weak people do to make up for their own inadequacies. Please don’t waste your energy trying to figure out why he did it or if you could have done something differently, because a man as cruel and selfish as that couldn’t have been deterred by anything.”
A wealth of emotions pushed all that anger aside, filling up all her empty spaces. Jax was so good to her, so loving and tender, she wanted to climb into his arms and soak in his comfort. “As much as I hate you seeing me like this, I’m so thankful you’re here.”
“There’s no place else I’d rather be.” He tucked her hair behind her ear and caressed her cheek. “You know what I think, beautiful? We need to work on healing your bruised heart. Why don’t I run you a bath so you can relax?”
God, this man…
“Can I just do one thing first?” she asked, stirring the butterflies that had been beaten down by those uglier emotions back to life.
“Anything.”
