"Your side?" I glare at him. "What's your side? That you somehow forgot to tell me that you were getting married? That you actually own the restaurants you pretend to be helping with? Clive said you were an asshole and I have to agree with him."
"What?" He pulls the word through his clenched teeth. "When did you talk to Clive?"
"That's none of your business." I exhale harshly. "Who I talk to about you or anything else is no longer your business."
"He hates me," he snaps back. "They all hate me."
"Hardly," I laugh as I reach for my purse on the piano. "You're marrying one of them."
"You're not leaving until we settle this." He jumps to his feet and steals my purse from my grasp.
I cross my arms across my chest. "Hunter, I don't want to settle anything. You're a liar and a cheat. That's all I need to know."
"I am an asshole. Clive was right about that," he says in a rush. "I'm an asshole for letting things with Christina get as far as they have."
"You mean asking her to marry you?" I almost laugh at the audacity of the words. "You realize you're not making any sense, right?"
"It's complicated, Sadie." His jaw tightens. "I don't love her."
My heart jumps at his announcement but any joy is brief and fleeting. He's marrying her. I saw the ring. I saw her rush into his arms. I was at their engagement party.
"Then end it," I push back.
"I can't." His shoulders tense and he heaves his head forward. "I can't."
"Then we have nothing left to say to each other." I pull my purse from his grasp and march towards the door.
"I love you, not her," he says as I put my hand on the doorknob. "Only you, Sadie."
I shake my head as I step through and listen to the door slam closed behind me.
Chapter 6
"He told you he loved you?" The giddiness in Alexa's voice is both misplaced and unnerving.
I pull both my eyebrows up in mock surprise. "This isn't a cause for celebration."
"Why not?" She genuinely
seems shocked.
"He's marrying someone else." I lean forward as if my stance is going to help her to absorb the words. "Did you forget that part?"
"He won't marry her if he's in love with you." She turns to refill a napkin holder. "He's going to end it with her, rush in here and sweep you off your feet."
"If we were part of a scripted reality show that would happen." I smooth my hands over my apron. "He said he couldn’t end the engagement."
"He actually said that to you?" She turns so quickly that she knocks the napkin holder onto the floor.
I wait for her to bend down to retrieve it but she stands stoically staring at me. I sigh before I kneel to pick up the holder and all the wayward napkins that are now strewn everywhere. "He said it."
"Leave that alone." I feel her grab the top of my apron trying to pull me to my feet. "This is an emergency."
"What is?" I glance up at her. "That Hunter is a cheating bastard who has no intention of leaving her for me? How can you be surprised by that?"
"Stand up," she barks. "Now, Sadie."
I pull as many of the napkins into my hands as I can. "Why are we debating this?" I stand and look directly at her. "Why bother?"