“Can I have my ring back?” she asks again.
“No.” I look over her, at the outfit she attempted. Since I took her shirt but not her jeans, she’s still wearing those. The little coral thing I bought her is serving as a shirt, though it’s not covering much. It’s super low cut since it’s lingerie, and there are nude panels so I can see swatches of her abdomen, sides, and back as she moves. My arousal stirs, and suddenly I can’t remember why I’ve been annoyed with her all day.
“This doesn’t have to be all bad, you know,” I tell her, since right now I’d really like for things to be nice.
“You’re keeping me against my will, Vince.” She doesn’t sound irritable when she says this, just kind of sad. That’s so much worse. I’d rather be annoyed at her every day of my life than make her legitimately sad.
“You can make a life here, just like you made one there,” I point out. “That wasn’t the life you wanted either, remember? That wasn’t your plan. But it happened and you made the best of it. That’s what you do, that’s your thing.”
“But I don’t want to have to do that here. I already have a great thing that works and makes us all happy, Vince. I’m part of a family. I have a step-daughter. Bella and I—we have a relationship now, and I was supposed to go to her school today and handle some little jerk who’s being mean to her because of who her dad is, and now she just thinks I didn’t show up for her. Literally Friday night she sat on my bed with me and Mateo and demanded he marry me so he didn’t make me leave, like Beth left. I promised her that I would never leave, that I would be around forever. And then you showed up at the bakery, and now what’s it going to look like to her? It’s going to look like I left. It’s going to look like I pulled a Beth.”
“Beth didn’t leave,” I remind her, quietly.
“As far she knows, Beth left. That’s her reality. And now, two nights after telling Mateo she wanted him to marry me so I didn’t leave too, that poor little girl takes a hit again. This is bullshit. Bullshit. I had peace, I had normalcy, I had love and a beautiful fucking family, and you took it from me. I don’t want to start over; I want my life back.”
“You’ve been getting what you wanted for the last four years,” I tell her. “Maybe you don’t get what you want this time.”
“That’s what you really want, Vince?” she demands, her blue eyes narrowed. “A woman who doesn’t want you?”
“Don’t give me that shit, Mia. You and I both know I can get a response out of you. When I kissed you at the hotel, you almost kissed me back.”
“Do you hear yourself?” she asks, eyebrows climbing her forehead. “I almost kissed you back. I didn’t even kiss you back, just almost.”
“I know you’re afraid to betray Mateo,” I state.
Her blue eyes dim a little at that, and she settles back a step. I know I’ve hit that nail on the head.
“Of course I am,” she admits. “But I also don’t want to.”
“Like you didn’t want to betray me?”
Her eyes drop to the ground now. I like seeing her looking guilty. She should look guilty for what she did—what she’s continued to do. That she cheated on me with him multiple fucking times and then left me to ride off into the sunset with that asshole is complete and utter bullshit.
“You broke my heart, Mia.”
She does look stricken at that. I didn’t even mean to say it. I’m sure she knows already and it doesn’t feel great to admit, but goddamn, she did.
“And I’m so sorry for that,” she says softly, no longer with an edge of meanness. “I truly am, Vince. I know I was horrible to you and I honestly I feel awful for hurting you. That was never my intention.”
“I don’t want you to feel awful for it. I just…” I shake my head, feeling mildly terrified as I tell her, “I just want you to fix it.”
Her gaze meets mine, and I can’t figure out what’s going on up there, but she’s definitely thinking about something. Finally, still holding my gaze, she says, “But I can’t, Vince. I can’t do that. If I knew how, believe me, I would.”
“Just be there,” I say simply. I’ve thought it through a million times, and I know exactly how she fixes it. It’s just a matter of guiding her through it, making her want it. “That was all I wanted from you. I was going through one of the worst times of my life and you were supposed to be my person, and you were nowhere. Even when you were right next to me, you weren’t there. I know I give you hell for the cheating, and the cheating sucked, but not being there for me when Joey died, that was what made me think you really didn’t give a single fuck about me.”