Unsuitable

“Five minutes.”

Barrett intervened. “You trained as a boxer?”

Reece’s chin came up, his glance switched to Barrett. “I trained as a street fighter. Mixed martial arts. No rules, open combat. But that was years ago.”

“And you didn’t think to tell Audrey about it. Didn’t think that was pertinent?”

Reece’s hands came together, his fingers interlocking. His knuckles were scabbed and bruised. This was a street fight too and Audrey wanted it over before anyone got more hurt.

“What’s your role here?” he said to Barrett.

Barrett held his hand out to her and she took it. “I’m Audrey’s friend and Mia’s father, what’s yours?”

The expression on Reece’s face caught her full force in the chest and ripped her open. She had stripped him of his meaning in this. Was she wrong? Was she panicking again, like she’d done recovering from meningitis? Did she really want to be without Reece? He’d lied. He’d told her she knew everything there was to know about him. What other secrets did he have that could hurt Mia?

She took her hand from Barrett. “It’s okay.” She owed Reece this.

She went out the door and down the steps. She stood in front of Reece and viewed the wreckage of him up close. It wasn’t that he looked any different, but he was. She saw him as she’d done that very first day, a hulking, beautiful man, surprising for his softness, out of place and time with his skills and chosen career.

He was inconsistent, he was too young, they wanted different things, were in different places in their lives. And yet, he would bend for her beyond all that was best for him. He was simply unsuitable, and she couldn’t bear for this to hurt him anymore.

“You can’t come here like this.” If he fought her she’d cut him off quickly. But they didn’t need an audience. She gave Barrett a wave. He nodded and moved out of the doorway into the house.

Reece folded his arms and she knew that was to prevent reaching for her. “Let me explain.”

She had to furl her own fists to stop from doing the same to him. “No, it’s done. There is nothing for you to say and this is upsetting for all of us.”

“You’re very pale, baby. No dizziness. No tingles or headaches.”

“Reece. Stop.” Please, please stop, please go, please don’t make this harder.

“Don’t cut me off like this.”

“What do you want me to say that I haven’t already? It was a mistake to get involved. I made a bad decision and you kept your secrets and there’s no going back.”

“I don’t believe that for a second. Tell me you don’t love me.”

It was easier if she looked at his big boat-like shoes than his wonderful face and those eyes gone dark. “It’s not as easy as that.”

“Yeah, it is. I love you and Mia and I want to be with you both.”

She shook her head. She couldn’t be his family. She knew how to do self-reliance, not the muck of needing people you couldn’t control with a salary, with a position. Family in the traditional sense had never worked well for her like it did for others and she couldn’t be the reason Reece didn’t get to have one of his own.

“I need you to leave.”

He didn’t move. He was a fortress. He would protect her and Mia till the day he died and she’d never wanted anyone’s protection till she wanted it to save herself from him. She could feel him watching her, but she wasn’t ready for him to move. He cupped the back of her neck and put his lips to her forehead, so infinitesimally slowly and tenderly she wasn’t ready to catch her sob either.

“Your temperature is up. I need to know you’ll look after yourself,” he said, his breath in her hair.

She wanted to twist her hands in his shirt, hook them into the waistband of his jeans and hold him to her. Her temperature was up because that’s what happens when you break your own heart. “Please go.”

He stepped back and broke her imaginary grip, broke her all over like she was one of Mia’s toys stepped on and busted open.

“You asked what it would take to make me lose control, fall apart.”

His voice wavered and that all by itself, that hesitancy and hurt, almost made her stagger.

“This is how you do it to me, Audrey. It’s not six guys threatening me, menacing you in an alley. It’s not having you learn the worst of me. It’s not even the idea of having to share you with Barrett. It’s this. Knowing you don’t love me like I do you and sending me away.”