: Chapter 25

“What time is your flight tonight?” I leaned closer to the mirror, brushing on mascara.

“Eight.” Wilder came up behind me. He reached around and tugged the belt to my bathrobe. It fell open, revealing that I hadn’t put on my bra yet, only my panties. He cupped a breast in each hand and squeezed, burying his head in my neck for a kiss. It felt good, but I was going to be late if I didn’t hurry.

“Don’t even think about it, Mr. Hayes. I have to get to work. I have a packed day, starting with a department meeting at nine.”

“Mr. Hayes, huh?” He nipped at my earlobe. “I like it. I vote you stay home from work and we play asshole boss/naughty employee.”

I turned to face him. Wilder didn’t budge an inch, so we were practically nose to nose. “Another day. But I’m the boss, and you’re the employee.”

He grinned. “Yes, ma’am.”

“I really need to get ready for work. And it’s Wednesday, so tonight I have to relieve my dad at the bar at six.”

“How about I call my dad and tell him you need the day off and we stay in bed all day instead?”

“I don’t think so.”

He pouted. It was adorable, but I still needed to get to work. So I ducked under his arm and went to my closet. “What are you going to do all day?” I yelled from inside.

“I have a meeting with an agent I can’t stand at ten. He tried to get me to sign with him a dozen years ago. Now he’s representing a player I want and being difficult. I think he’s doing it on purpose because I turned him down.”

I slipped on a navy dress and a pair of cream wedges and stepped out of the closet. “That’s unprofessional.”

He shrugged. “It is what it is. I’m meeting my dad for lunch after, probably about one o’clock. Why don’t you come with us?”

I blinked a few times. “I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because then he would know.”

Wilder’s forehead wrinkled. “Know what?”

“About us.”

“So?”

“It’s where I work. I don’t want anyone to know.”

“For how long?”

“I don’t know.”

Wilder got quiet. I walked over and rested my palms against his chest. “If people at work know that I’m dating the boss’s son, they’re going to make assumptions and talk. That type of stuff sticks. They’ll look at me funny even when we aren’t seeing each other anymore.”

Wilder pulled his neck back. “You’re planning for the fallout from our breakup already?”

“No, that’s not what I’m doing, but—”

He shook his head with a frown. “Whatever. You should get going. I wouldn’t want you to be late for work.”

“Wilder…”

“It’s fine.”

I sighed. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Whatever.”

“I don’t want to fight with you before you go back to London tonight.”

“Who’s fighting?” He kissed my forehead, the same as he had before we were a couple. “It’s no big deal.”

Still, I could see in his eyes that I’d hurt him. But I was going to miss my meeting if I didn’t hurry. So I nodded. “Okay. I’ll talk to you tomorrow?”

“Yep. I’ll lock up behind me.”

Ten hours later, I still hadn’t shaken the uneasy feeling after leaving things the way I had with Wilder. We’d had such a great week, too—spending time alone, hanging out and playing board games with Olivia and Lucas, and we’d even had dinner with both my brothers. And here I wouldn’t even go to lunch with his dad. I felt like such an idiot for the way I’d handled things this morning. I walked into Carrick’s, stuffed my purse under the bar, and wrapped an apron around my waist.

“Hey, Dad.”

“Hey, sweetheart. Everything okay?”

“Why do you ask?”

He shrugged. “Your smile isn’t reaching your eyes.”

“Just tired.”

A group of regulars came in, firemen from the twenty-third. I walked over and helped them while Dad went back to watching a horse race with his old partner. He hollered when one of them won, and Frank made a face and passed cash over the bar. The two of them would’ve bet on an ant race if they could see things that small anymore.

Sometime later, I went to the back and grabbed a rack of clean glasses to stock behind the bar. Frank called it a night, so Dad walked over to help me. His tremors were really bad lately.

“When’s your next doctor’s appointment?” I asked, sliding a stemmed glass into the rack over my head.

“Soon. When’s your eye exam?”

“Huh?”

He pointed down at the glasses. “Those aren’t clean.”

I did a double take. “Oh.”

Dad leaned on the bar. “You usually put half of them back even when they are clean because they aren’t clean enough for your liking. You want to tell me what’s going on? Because I’m not going to leave my pretty daughter alone in a bar full of men when she’s not on her game.”

I put the dirty glass back into the crate. “I’m fine. Just a little distracted, I guess.”

“That have anything to do with a certain rugby player I saw coming out of the building again this morning?”

I sighed. “I made Wilder feel bad earlier. He asked me to go to lunch with his dad, and I said I didn’t want people at work to know I’m dating the big boss’s son. Which I think is reasonable, but it came out wrong, and it seemed more like I was concerned about how people would view me after we split up—like I expected we would. Wilder said he wasn’t mad, but I could tell it upset him. And he’s at the airport by now, on his way back to England, so it’s not like I can take the subway and apologize in person.”

“Sometimes we say what we mean, even when we don’t mean to, honey.”

I nodded. “Honestly, that’s exactly what I did. I think I just expect things to not work out, based on my past experiences. And that’s not fair to put on Wilder.”

“We all bring baggage to a relationship. The important thing is what you do with it. You can carry it with you forever, or you can unpack it. The choice is yours.”

I nodded. “That’s a really good analogy. Would you mind staying for a few minutes more, Dad? I’m going to go in the back and call Wilder, see if I can catch him before he takes off.”

“Take all the time you need, sweetheart.”

But the phone rang three times and went to voicemail. Wilder should still have had a while before he took off, so I hoped he wasn’t ignoring my call. When voicemail picked up, I decided to leave him a message.

“Hey. It’s me. I was hoping I’d catch you before you boarded. I wanted to apologize again for what I said this morning. It’s been bugging me all day.” I took a deep breath. “I’d like to get to know your dad better. Maybe next time you’re back in New York we can have that lunch? Or maybe I can make you both dinner at my place?” I paused. “Anyway … give me a call if you have time before you take off, okay? Talk to you soon.”

I swiped to end the call and tucked my cell into the pocket of my apron. I hoped I hadn’t screwed things up with Wilder because of my experience with Josh. That man had really left his mark. Maybe I should call the jerk back after all and give him a piece of my mind.

Though when I walked back out to the bar, I realized a call wouldn’t be necessary. Because my ex-fiancé had just walked through the front door.

Not surprisingly, Dad spotted him first. He’d been putting on his jacket and stilled. I wasn’t sure where to go first, but I ended up waving to Dad to tell him everything was okay and walking over to Josh.

“What are you doing here?”

He smiled. “Hey. I took a chance that you still worked Wednesday nights.”

“I see that. But why did you come?”

“I want to talk to you, and you won’t return my calls or messages.”

“That’s because I don’t have anything to say to you.”

Josh frowned. “Can we just talk for a few minutes?”

I glanced over at Dad. Josh did the same and waved, but Dad didn’t return the sentiment.

“He’s still pissed, huh?”

“Did you ever really know my father at all? There’s no coming back from leaving his daughter standing at the altar. You’re lucky Will and Travis aren’t here tonight.”

Josh looked down. “Yeah, of course. Should I go over and apologize again?”

“No. I think you should say what you came to say and leave before he chases you out.”

He nodded. “Can we sit for a minute?”

I sighed. “Fine. Go sit in a booth. I need to talk to my dad first.”

“Okay.”

Dad already had the baseball bat on top of the bar. I shook my head. “You don’t need that.”

“Jury is still out on that one. What’s he doing here?”

“I’m not sure. He said he wants to talk to me.”

Dad clapped the bat to his hand. “He can talk to me instead.”

I smiled sadly. “It’s fine. I’ll talk to him. Why don’t you go home?”

“I’ll leave after he does.”

I knew there was no point in arguing with my father about that. But his tremors got worse when he was stressed, so I needed to make it fast. “I won’t be long.”

Josh was seated in a booth with his hands folded. I took the seat across from him.

“What’s going on that you needed to speak to me?”

“Do you know what today is?”

“Wednesday?”

“The date?”

I had to think about it. “July thirt—” Halfway through, I realized this was the day we’d met and the day he’d proposed two years later. But it no longer meant anything, and I was proud of myself that I hadn’t even noticed. I shook my head. “Is that why you’re here? To remind me of the date? Because my dad’s tremors get worse with stress, and him seeing you sitting here is not helping. So why don’t you get to the point?”

“I’m sorry.” He looked down. “I’ve been trying to figure out what to say to you for a long time, so you would think I’d have something more eloquent planned, but the only thing that sums it up is…” He looked up and met my eyes. “I miss you, Sloane.”

I felt my face twist. “What?”

“I do. More than anything. I made a giant mistake leaving the church that day. I was immature and scared, worried I was making the wrong choice like my parents did, and I couldn’t see that it didn’t matter what else was out there because the best thing in the world was right in front of me all along.”

Turmoil flared inside of me. Not that long ago, I would’ve given anything to hear those words. But now I just felt anger. He had no damn clue how much damage he’d done. I’d almost missed out on the best thing to happen to me because of how scarred I was, and here he was worried about himself.

“What happened to Monica?” I asked.

“We broke up.”

And there it was. I folded my arms across my chest. “Oh. So she dumped you and now you don’t want to be alone?”

Josh shook his head. “It’s not like that at all. I broke up with her. It was four months ago, actually. But I didn’t want to come to you until I got my head straight and was sure. I know how much I hurt you, Sloane. I didn’t want to risk doing it again.” He paused. “I started seeing a therapist.”

I didn’t reply. I just stared into his face blankly. After everything he’d said, I felt … nothing. Though that wasn’t completely true. Maybe I felt a little appreciation. Because if Josh hadn’t been a complete jerk, I would be married to him right now, and then I wouldn’t have met Wilder.

But Josh must’ve taken my silence as contemplation, because he leaned closer. “We can start slow, Sloane. I know I’ll have to win your trust back. But if you give me another chance, I promise you won’t regret it.”

Just then, the front door opened and a big group of familiar faces walked in—there had to be eight or ten of them, all cops. “I have to go.”

“I’ll wait for you.”

I stood. I was about to tell him to go home, not to bother waiting—not today or for me—but when I opened my mouth, I realized one of the guys who’d come in with the group was not a cop. And that man was currently staring right at me.

Wilder.

I walked to him without saying anything more to Josh. “What are you doing here?”

“I didn’t want to leave things the way they were this morning. So I took Lucas to the airport and made sure someone could pick him up on the other side. Then I grabbed a cab here.” Wilder looked to the table where I’d been seated, a few feet away. He lifted his chin. “Who’s that?”

I swallowed. “Josh.”

“Josh, your ex?”

I nodded. “He just stopped by. I had no idea he was coming.”

Wilder’s jaw flexed.

The crowd that had just come in was rowdy. I needed to go help Dad. “Could you—would you give me two minutes? I need to help behind the bar.”

Wilder nodded and pointed to the seating area with booths, where Josh was seated. “I’ll wait over there.”

I hesitated, but he couldn’t possibly mean he was going to wait with Josh. He meant the seating area in general …

“Go help your dad,” he said. “I’ll be fine.”

I nodded, but by the time I’d made my way across the room and taken my position behind the bar, Wilder was sliding into the seat across from Josh. “Oh shit.”

Dad heard me and looked over. He grinned. “Guess I won’t have to take out the trash after all. Wilder will do it for me.”

A heavy, sinking dread formed in the pit of my stomach as I took orders and mixed drinks. I poured half a beer from the tap onto my hand, because I couldn’t stop looking over at the two men in the booth long enough to see what I was doing. Wilder’s face was stern as he spoke. I couldn’t see Josh, but I knew I needed to get back over there. A few minutes later, everyone who’d just come in had their first drink.

Dad looked at me. “Go. I got it.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

As I approached the table, Josh stood. He looked like someone had run over his dog. The smile he attempted failed miserably, and his eyes went briefly to Wilder before returning to me. “I’m going to head out. Call me if you want to talk, okay?”

I nodded, feeling bad, though I knew I shouldn’t at all. “Take care, Josh.” My mind was jumbled, my nerves still a tangled mess as I slid into the seat my ex-fiancé had vacated.

Wilder studied me for a moment. “He came to tell you he wants you back.”

The words were a statement, not a question, though I felt the need to confirm and nodded. “I had no idea he was coming.”

“He’s been calling and texting you, and you never answered.”

“That’s because I’m not interested in what he has to say.”

Wilder took a deep breath before looking into my eyes. “You sure of that?”

“Very.” I reached across the table and held out my hand. I was grateful Wilder didn’t hesitate to take it. “I’m sorry about this morning,” I said. “I called you and left a message, but even if you already listened to it, I want to say it again in person. I’d like to spend time with you and your dad.”

“You don’t have to, if you’re not ready.”

“I am, and I want to. This morning had nothing to do with how I feel about you and our relationship, and everything to do with my own insecurities, which was wrong. Again.”

Wilder smiled and squeezed my hand. “Okay.”

“Are we good? You believe me that I had no idea Josh was going to show up, right?”

“Of course I do. Why wouldn’t I?”

“I thought I was going to have a heart attack when you sat down across from him. What were you guys talking about anyway?”

“I told him politely that I’d break every bone in his body if you didn’t want to talk to him and he harassed you.”

“Oh boy. What did Josh say?”

“I have to give him credit, the guy has balls. He asked what I would do if you did want to talk.”

Wow, yeah. That was ballsy. Josh wasn’t small, but he was no match for Wilder. “How did you respond do that?”

Wilder shrugged. “I told him you make your own choices, and if that’s what you want, then that’s what you want. But if he ever hurt you again, I’d be back to break every bone in his body.”

My heart fluttered. This was the type of man I wanted—one who put my choices first, even when my decision wasn’t his first choice. It reminded me of how my dad had always treated my mom, and that meant the world to me. I got up and went around to the other side of the booth, parking my ass on Wilder’s lap with my arms locked around his neck. “I don’t want to talk to Josh. Being with you is like having Christmas every day.”

“Are you stealing my lines, Cupcake?”

I laughed. “I am.”

He pressed his lips to mine. “I guess that’s fair, love. Because you’ve stolen my heart.”