I’m a tongue-tied fool standing here staring at him while trying to gather my thoughts. I had expected to arrive at his sister’s apartment, spend a good five to ten minutes outside psyching myself up for our conversation, and then walk in there and tell him like it is. Instead, he’s caught me off guard, and I’m struggling for words in much the same way I imagine an Olympic sprinter probably struggles for breath after a race.
His lips twitch as if he’s about to break out into a grin, but he contains it and simply says, “I’m glad you came.”
Oh, no.
No, no, no, buddy.
I’m fairly sure he’s misreading this whole situation, and I need to get us on the same page before his thoughts progress any further.
I raise my hand as if to say, “Stop,” at the same time that he steps closer to me. Unfortunately, my hand lands on his chest. A moment later, his hand is resting over mine, and he’s smiling down at me in a way that tells me he very much thinks there is more to this visit than there is.
Oh, God.
Sienna was right—this is not going down the way I pictured it.
“Boston, I—”
Still smiling, he cuts me off as he grabs my hand and leads me towards Amber’s apartment. “Amber has been feeling down since the accident. Seeing you will cheer her up.”
“Wait. I need to tell you something,” I blurt out, but we’ve reached our destination, and he interrupts me again.
He unlocks the apartment door and says, “Catch up with Amber first, and then you and I can talk.” His eyes lock onto mine and he blasts another smile my way as he adds, “It’s so good to be back.”
My throat goes dry as concern races through my veins. This is definitely not going the way I imagined.
* * *
I sip my coffee and watch Boston silently while he sugars his. I’ve spent the last hour catching up with Amber and doing my best to ignore the growing dread in the pit of my stomach. Boston sat on the couch next to me while I chatted with Amber, acting like the past five months and a break-up hasn’t gone down between us. After I finished with Amber, he suggested we head to the café downstairs so we could talk. I was more than ready to talk and set a few things straight.
“Boston, this isn’t what you think it is.”
He glances up from his coffee and watches me quietly for a few moments. “What do I think it is, Lorelei?”
“You think that me coming to the apartment this morning means I want to get back together with you. But it doesn’t. I wanted to come over and see Amber, and I also wanted to come and see you to let you know it really is over between us.”
“It’s not over between us. Not by a long shot. I noticed the way you reacted when you saw me this morning.” He leans closer and drops his voice. “The way your body reacted to me.”
“The only reaction you saw was me being caught off guard.” The way he assumes to know what I’m thinking and feeling irritates me. It always has.
“Why did you feel like you had to be on guard in the first place?”
I frown. “This is why. You have a way of twisting my words and causing me to get all confused.” I pause for a moment before adding, ?
??Don’t read more into this than what there is.”
“There is more to read into here. There always is with you.”
“Stop it. There’s nothing more here. We broke up five months ago, and I’ve moved on. You should too. I wanted to say that in a much nicer way to you, but you’re not giving me much chance to do that.”
He lifts a brow as he settles back into his seat. “You’ve moved on with Ashton Scott? Do you know much about that man, Lorelei? For instance, the fact that he sleeps with women all over the world and moves onto the next before he’s hardly finished with the previous one.”
Anger bubbles up from deep within me, as well as a desire to protect Ashton and not allow Boston to trash talk him. “I know more about him than you think. And to be honest, it surprises me that you would stoop so low as to put another man down. There are better ways to convince a woman to take you back than to resort to that kind of behaviour.” I push my chair back and stand. “Please listen to me when I tell you that there’s no future for us. We had some fun, but we weren’t meant to be together forever.”
He stands too, a determined look on his face. “I told you last night that I wouldn’t give up as easily this time, and I meant it.”
“And I asked you to please not do that. I’ve just started seeing Ashton, and I want to give our relationship a good chance.”
“You loved me, Lorelei. You don’t just fall out of love with someone in five months.”