Fated Hearts (Southern Bride 8)

I brought my hand up to my burning cheek. “What the fuck was that for?”

“You left! You asshole, you left!”

I stared at her, confused. “What are you talking about?”

“You left the charity dinner!”

I rolled my eyes, turned, and walked toward my kitchen. The front door slammed, and I heard her heels on my hardwood floors as she followed me.

“You seemed perfectly fine when I left,” I said. “How long did it even take you to notice I was gone?”

“Why did you leave?” she asked. I wasn’t sure if it was my imagination, but her voice sounded like it might have cracked.

I opened the fridge, took out a beer, and then looked at her. “You left to go dance with some jackass. I wasn’t going to just stand there and wait.”

Her mouth fell open. “I told you I’d be right back!”

“I didn’t hear that.”

Her hands balled into fists. “You arrogant asshole. You ignored me all night, then came up with a glass of champagne and I was supposed to…what? Fall at your feet? Beg you for a dance, a conversation, a simple hello?”

“It works both ways, Annalise. You could have come to me too.”

Her eyes turned dark with anger. “You might as well have opened your door and kicked me out of your house the last time I saw. You never even bothered to give me an explanation for your behavior. Why should I have to be the one to seek you out when you acted like a dick? Treated me like…”

Her voice trailed off.

I let out a gruff laugh. “Are we in fucking middle school right now and arguing about who didn’t talk to who first?”

Her head snapped back like I had struck her, and her eyes lost some of their fire. “I thought….”

“You thought what?”

Annalise pressed her lips together tightly, and it wasn’t hard to notice her chin wobble. Oh, shit. Was she about to cry? God, why was I such an asshole?

She turned away, a dazed expression on her face. She looked down at the floor, then around the kitchen until her eyes finally met mine. “I…I guess I was wrong.”

“About?”

I hated the coldness in my voice. I drew in a breath and let it out before I softened my tone. “You were wrong about what?”

Without a word, she turned on her heels and started to leave.

“Wait, where are you going now?” I asked.

She reached for the door, but I put my hand on it, slamming it shut. “Annalise, wait. Stop walking the fuck away.”

When she looked up at me and I saw the tears on her face, I stumbled back a few steps.

“Why are you crying?” I asked.

Her eyes locked with mine, and we just stood there for a few moments, neither saying a word. I wasn’t even sure we were breathing. Then she laughed a strange, distant laugh.

“I don’t even know why I came here. Patty and Jim dropped me off at home, and the first thing I did was grab my keys and start driving here because clearly, I am the biggest fool who ever walked this earth.”

I frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“Everyone kept saying how amazing it was, the way we met. God, everyone, including myself, kept filling my head with words like fate and destiny. We were meant to be. And just as I was about to give up, you walked up to me. I had the smallest bit of hope that maybe, somewhere in your heart, you had let me in.”

Her voice cracked as a sob slipped free.

“I remember thinking a few weeks ago about how we met and how I was falling for you so fast and so hard. I knew in Chicago I would never be the same again. That my heart would never be the same. My sister said we had fated hearts.”

My own heart hammered in my chest. “Fated hearts?”

Annalise wiped at her tears. “But I can’t compete with her.”

“Who?”

“Kerri.”

I thought my knees might buckle out from under me. “Who told you about her?”

She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter anymore. This stupid dream of mine, my Prince Charming sweeping in and carrying me off into the sunset…what a joke. I let myself believe it for those few days in Chicago. Then, when you were at the airport, I was so stunned that we had been brought back together. But…but you can’t even let me into your own bed. Why? Because of her? Because you’ve already given your heart to someone else? If that’s the case, Roger, tell me now. Tell me so I can put myself out of this constant…m-misery I’m in. Tell me so I can let go of this stupid fairy tale I’ve made up in my head.”

I took her hands in mine. “That wasn’t it. Now that I look back on it all, it’s so fucking stupid, but I didn’t want you in my bed because I’d slept with other women in that bed. It didn’t feel right to be with you there. You’re so different, so special. I…I don’t know how to explain it without making me sound like a crazy man who’s had woman after woman in and out of my bed. I mean, I’ve slept with other women, of course, but—”