“What about the kids? They’ll wonder where you went.”
“Tell them something came up with work. I assume you can find someone to help you watch them?”
I don’t want to leave him or the kids hanging, but I can’t stay here. I can’t be this close to him, loving him and knowing he doesn’t feel the same way.
Grayson nods. “Duke can help.”
With that, I turn and leave.
There’s truth to the old adage that actions speak louder than words, because he doesn’t call to me or try to stop me, and his inaction tells me all I need to know.
34
Grayson
I’m still trying to figure out what the hell just happened when Duke walks in the door with the kids.
I waited until Nora put her suitcase in the back of her brother’s beat-up Ford before I texted Duke and told him it was safe to come back.
Watching her leave was so much harder than I thought it would be. I wanted to run after her, tell her I was sorry, and beg her to forgive me, but I don’t have the right to do that. I owe it to myself, my kids, and her to figure out my shit before I try to mesh our lives together.
When I confronted her about paying off Lorelei, I had no idea the conversation would escalate the way it did. I just wanted her to know how much it hurt that she went behind my back and to find out why she did it.
Now she’s gone, and there’s a gaping hole in the center of my chest.
Duke knows immediately that something’s wrong, but he doesn’t say a word. Instead, he sticks around, helps me field questions from the kids about Nora, get them cleaned up and in bed, and then he hands me a beer.
“What the fuck happened today?”
“I think we broke up.”
“What do you mean you think you broke up?”
“She left.”
“Did you give her a reason to stay?”
I take a swig of my beer and shake my head. “I gave her every reason to go.”
“You’re not making sense. What the fuck happened? One minute we were having dinner, and the next she’s gone.”
I can’t find the words to explain what happened because I’m still trying to understand it myself.
“I was mad,” I say, dropping onto a kitchen chair.
“At what?”
“She paid Lorelei half a million dollars to stop going to the press. She made her sign a contract stating she couldn’t talk to anyone ever again about our relationship or anything at all that happened.”
“You high-fived her for that right?”
I frown. “No. You wouldn’t have been pissed?”
“Not at all. You two had an issue, she solved it, end of story.”
“It wasn’t her issue to solve.”
“Wasn’t it? You two were in a relationship, right?”