Page 28 of Redemption

Her thumb reaches out to move the absent rings out of habit and looks at the ground. “You served him the divorce papers.”

“Yeah, but let’s be honest. No one thought it’d stick. What happened, Lex?”

“Life,” she says with a laugh and shrugs.

“Bullshit. I know you, and I know this isn’t just how life turned out for you. What happened?”

Her hand rubs her arm as she crosses them under her chest. “He didn’t want me anymore. That’s really what it boils down to.”

“No, I’m sorry. I don’t believe that. I can’t. There are no two people on the planet I know love each other as much as you two do.”

“Including you and Ashley?”

Smirking, he walks over and leans against her car in a similar stance. “Touché. But I know you still love him. I can see it on your face.”

“It wasn’t my love being questioned.”

“What did he do?”

Her eyes glance up at him. “What?”

“I know you. And I know him. What did he do?”

“Besides possibly having a kid with a club bunny in Black Valley, it’s more about what he didn’t do.”

Grayson can’t help himself. His jaw drops. Colt Nichols cheated? On Lex? No, there’s no way. Well, there was that time with the chick he’d knocked up, but that was different. Or so he says. Yes, the world will officially end now.

“You’re going to start letting flies in, Tate.”

His mouth snaps shut. “Sorry, I think I might have had an aneurysm or something. I just… wow.”

“What do you think about all this?”

Her blue eyes look into his, and his heart breaks for her. “I think he had to screw up big time to push you this far. And if you believe he stepped out, there’s a damn good reason for it. I also think he’s a fucking moron and will regret this for the rest of his life. You know, when the pride keeping him from realizing just what he’s done moves aside.”

“You don’t think I’m wrong? Or crazy? That it’s all in my head?”

“If there’s one thing I know, it’s that you only walk away or give up when you finally get tired of hitting your head against a brick wall. In case you were wondering, Colt Nichols seems very wall-like. Stubborn, difficult, but solid.”

Her eyes fill with tears, but she smiles. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Most people tell me I’m crazy to believe that he might’ve had a thing with that tart. That he loves me, and I’m giving up too easily. No one knows just how hard I fought every single day. It hurt, Grayson. It really hurt. And I could only let it hurt for so long before I had to make a change.”

Wrapping his arm around her shoulders, he pulls her to him. “I know. If you believe something like that, who am I to question you? You are the most rational person of anyone in that club. That I know, period, actually. And you’re borderline clairvoyant. I meant what I said, though. He’ll regret this one day when he wakes up and realizes his pride wasn’t worth letting you get away.”

“I just want the pain to stop,” she says into his shirt, her fists balling his uniform shirt in them as she clings to him tightly. “I don’t know which hurts worse. Staying and constantly being made to feel invisible and unimportant or being without him when all I want is him.”

His lips kiss the top of her head. “It’ll get easier. I don’t know when, but I know it will. There will come a point where you’ll see him, and it won’t feel so bad. There will only be seven knives stabbing you in the heart instead of ten. Then five, and four, and soon, it’ll be a butter knife chipping away at it.”

She laughs and pulls away, wiping her eyes. “I got a job.”

“Where?”

“Here,” she says and points to the building. “I wish I was buying or selling a house, but I’m looking for work. Something to help support my kids.”

“Colt won’t give you anything?”

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