“None of the things your ex-husband says are true,” he said forcefully. “You’re not unfit. Don’t believe a word he says.”
“I try not to.”
“I’ve seen how hard you work to protect Finn,” he said. “Gary should be thanking you for how well you’re raising his child.”
“I just hope the judge will see that at the custody trial,” she said. “Anyway, I got a bit distracted today since Drew dropped by.”
Simon shoved his hands into his pockets and propped himself up against a wall. “What kind of work is the media relations department doing with accounts?” He kept his tone even, wanting the question to sound as innocuous as possible.
She bit her lip and averted her gaze. “It’s nothing really.” Her hands tightened around the strap of her handbag, the grip so tight her knuckles turned white.
Some distant alarm sounded in the back of his mind. Heather was holding something back from him. Something important.
The urge to demand answers was almost too strong, but he remembered how badly things went when he accused her of the hacking. After she had almost completely shut him out of her life, he had sworn to trust her going forward. It was a promise he intended to keep, even as his guts churned at the way she couldn’t even look him in the eye.
“I didn’t know you were friends with Drew,” he said.
“I’m not,” she stammered. “Things are kind of complicated between me and Drew.” Her face flushed bright red.
Was that embarrassment staining her cheeks?
Right now, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he had caught Heather doing something wrong. Something she had to keep secret.
His insides twisted painfully as the truth started to come into focus. She was seeing Drew.
They hadn’t actually agreed to be exclusive, but Simon had been loyal to her from the moment she had first kissed him that day backstage. It was well within her right to date other people, but that still stung like a betrayal.
The thought of being with another woman hadn’t even occurred to him. For most of his life, women came and went. None of them were permanent. Forever wasn’t something he had ever considered. But as he had fallen in love with Heather, forever was the only thing worth pursuing with her. Yet here she was, dating someone else.
“Any reason things are complicated?” he asked in spite of the pain lancing through him.
She frowned. “I really wish I could be upfront with you about this, but right now I’d rather not say.”
There it was. The truth. Like a punch to the gut that knocked all the air out of him. “I see.”
“Do you still want to walk me downstairs?” She shifted uncomfortably on her feet, the space between them crackling with unspoken tension.
It was as if the secret parts of themselves they only showed one another were now locked away. Hidden behind an impenetrable wall that only the truth could unlock. The truth that they were both hiding from each other. He was hiding his love for her, and she was hiding another lover.
Was this what they had become to each other? Strangers? Cowards?
Somewhere things had gone wrong. Or maybe they had always been wrong. Maybe if he had declared his love to her earlier, he might have already been able to claim her as his. To love her the way she deserved to be loved. He had kept everyone in his life at arm’s length. He supposed getting the same treatment was only fitting. A strange sort of karma.
“No,” he said as the shooting pain of misery clawed through his heart. “I just remembered that I left something in my office and I have to go back and retrieve it. No sense in keeping you waiting.”
After a pause she said, “Okay. I guess I’ll see you later. Maybe we can have lunch together tomorrow?”
“Maybe,” he said blandly, her words barely penetrating his swirling, panicked thoughts.
By the time he snapped out of the fog at the sheer panic of losing her, Heather had disappeared. Leaving him behind to suffer alone through the unparalleled misery of a broken heart.
HEATHER HAD ALWAYS loved evenings after work. Work was wonderful but getting to pick up Finn was the highlight of her day. And today was extra special because she was having her parents over for one of their regular dinners together.