Collide (The Barker Triplets 2)

“And I knew you weren’t going to show, I wanted to hear that.” Gerald’s face was a shade past plain old pissed off. “In the hours afterward, between the twenty-five or thirty phone calls I made to your cell? I damn well wanted to hear that. Even when my mother convinced me it would be best to go away without you…even then, I still needed to hear you say that, but now it means nothing.”

“Gerald,” she whispered. “It means everything.”

“Really,” he said sarcastically.

Bobbi took a few moments to try and gather her thoughts but it was hard. Her stomach was a mess of knots and she was suddenly flush and not feeling so great. Everything was slipping away from her and she had no clue how to fix any of it.

Why hadn’t the old Gerald showed up? The one who would listen patiently and look at the argument from every side and angle. The man who would think things over in a calm, logical way and realize that sure, she’d screwed up—big time—but she deserved a second chance. After all, they loved each other.

Right?

“Gerald, I can explain. You have to let me explain.” She moved forward again and placed her hand on his forearm.

Gerald shoved his now product coated fingers into the front pockets of his jeans and scowled. He actually scowled at her.

“This is what I know to be the true facts of that night, Bobbi. While I stood at the front of the church, waiting in front of our friends and family,” he leaned closer. “In front of your father and your sisters including the crazy one, who, I would like to add was higher than a kite.”

“That’s not true.”

Both Gerald and Bobbi glanced toward the stairs. Betty stepped off the last one and—thank god—was respectfully covered up in a pair of sweat pants and a tank top.

“I wasn’t flying until much later,” Betty continued with a wink before disappearing down the hall toward the kitchen.

Gerald cleared his throat and nailed Bobbi with a dark look. “The point is I was there. Waiting for you because I wanted to marry you and where were you?”

His voice rose and Bobbi winced.

“You were in a bar three counties over with Shane fucking Gallagher.” He stepped inside the house and she moved back. “You spent the night,” he ground out, “Our wedding night with that loser.”

His profanity bothered her and yet the thing that twisted inside her was more to do with his attitude toward Shane.

“Shane isn’t a loser,” she blurted out.

Gerald looked like he was going to blow his top and wisely, Bobbi realized now was not the time to defend her ex-boyfriend.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered instead. There was no use denying anything. The entire town knew what had happened that night. Hell, Mrs. Beals, Shane’s neighbor, had watched her leave his home clad in only a T-Shirt, clutching her ruined wedding dress to her chest. That alone was as good as taking out an ad in the freaking newspaper.

“I didn’t sleep with him, Gerald.”

“Not that I believe you, but even if I did it doesn’t matter because I don’t care. You could have spent the entire night engaging in all sorts of devious activities with that…that criminal, but I don’t care. Not anymore.”

His words were like stones. They fell fast and hard and Bobbi stood before him, smoothing invisible wrinkles in her dress pants over her hips as her mind turned in circles, looking for a way to salvage things.

“I’d like my ring back,” he said with his hand held out. “It belongs in my family.”

“Oh,” Bobbi managed as she pulled it off her finger. “Of course.”

Gerald slipped the ring into his pocket and stepped outside. He paused for a moment, before leaving. “I’m sure you understand that I need to replace you at the firm. So don’t bother showing up for work tomorrow.”

And then he was gone.

Bobbi wasn’t sure how long she stared at the closed door but it was long enough for Betty to fix herself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Her sister ate it a few inches away and when Bobbi glanced at her, for a moment she thought she saw something other than the snotty, I-don’t-give-a-shit-about-anything look in her eyes.

If it was there, it was gone just as fast. Betty stuffed the last bit of bread into her mouth and spoke, barely managing to get the words out.

“Wow, dumped and fired in one shot. Bet you didn’t see that one coming.”

Chapter Eight