: Chapter 27

My head was pounding the next morning.

So much so, for the first five minutes, that I thought I was imagining the knock on my door downstairs.

Groaning, I flipped over in my bed, burying my face in one of the pillows. Huge mistake, as Tennessee’s shampoo scent—daisies and some kind of dessert—lingered in my nostrils, making me ache all over.

Although maybe that pain was also due to the fact I polished off an entire bottle of whiskey.

After I had dropped Tennessee off at her parents’ house the previous night and zipped through her street straight to the Duggars’, I cooed at newborn Bella, gave her a quick checkup, and went back home, where I’d promptly tried to drink myself to death.

I regretted the day I’d told Trinity I could give her older sister a ride to the port for our cruise.

And definitely the days that followed, in which I’d thought it would be a good idea to kiss her, taste her, bury myself deep inside her sweet, tantalizing body, and weave plans on how to make her mine.

One thing was for certain—if Rob ended up winning her over, he was going to have an eternity of tantrums and insecurities to deal with, so good luck with that.

“Cruz? Oh, Cruzyyyy?” I heard a shrill voice under my bedroom window.

Frankly, a visit from the Grim Reaper would have been more welcome, but I had a bone to pick with her. I unpeeled myself from my bed, cursing every aching muscle in my body as I wobbled down the stairs in a white, wrinkled shirt and a pair of unbuttoned jeans.

I tossed the door open offhandedly, knocking back the very little that was left of the whiskey from the previous night.

“Hello, Gabriella.”

She was back to looking like a modern maiden, big curls, perfect makeup, and a demure dress.

My destiny. Yay.

To marry a woman as boring and one-dimensional as this carbon copy of every main character in a cable television show I’d ever not-watched.

“Cruz,” she fussed, dragging her claws across my chest. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry.”

“That so?” I asked flatly. “Care to tell me what for?”

“Well, Nessy told Trinity that you and she broke it off. She’s trying to get on her family’s right side, I suppose, after what she did to me…”

I almost laughed. Tennessee had used our broken relationship as an excuse to claim martyrdom.

“And what exactly did she do to you?” I drawled.

“Oh, haven’t you heard?” She soldiered into my house, uninvited, straight to the kitchen, and flipped the coffee machine on. “She tried to kill me. Put peanuts in my sundae. Frankly, I knew she had a few loose screws ever since I first met her, but honestly, I didn’t—”

“She didn’t try to kill you, and we both know that.” I grabbed a banana from the fruit bowl and peeled it, shoving the entire thing into my mouth.

“You weren’t there.” Gabriella’s spine stiffened as she went about pouring each of us a cup. “It was horrible. I’m so lucky my mother found my EpiPen…”

“You don’t usually carry your EpiPen with you.” I knew that because I berated her for it when we were together for half a second. “Why’d you have it yesterday?”

She turned around, handing me a cup of coffee and taking a seat at my dining table. I remained standing. She made a show of shyly blowing her coffee.

“I don’t know.” She looked genuinely surprised by my question and her answer.

Since Gabriella was not a good actress, I was pretty sure she wasn’t lying.

“You don’t know how the EpiPen got in your purse?” I raised an eyebrow.

“No.”

“Interesting.”

“Maybe I just put it there, since you kept telling me to.”

“You’d have remembered.”

“What are you insinuating?” Her expression darkened, and she put her coffee cup down.

“What are you ?” I retorted.

She swallowed. She looked wrecked by what we both agreed, wordlessly, had happened.

“You need to fix this,” I said gently. “To tell the police.”

“I will.”

I shook my head and took a seat opposite her.

“Look, Gabriella, here’s the thing. You’re a great catch, but the truth is, when we first met, I wasn’t looking for anything serious. We started dating because we knew people expected us to. And it spun out of control. The night before the cruise, when I broke things off, I did so because I wanted to be a free agent once I was on the ship. Sleazy, but true. And you were right—it did have something to do with Tennessee. I always had a thing for her, and deep down, I knew the cruise was the perfect opportunity to catch her attention.”

I didn’t know this to be true until I’d said it, but now that I had, it all made sense.

“And you did.” Gabriella did her best to hide her distaste as the words left her mouth.

I saluted her with my cup, taking a sip.

“Correct. So this whole love triangle that came after the cruise? It was never a triangle. I was always a sucker for that maddening woman. I couldn’t say no to her if I tried. Possibly even if she’d come to me, fully knocked up by my best friend, and asked me to marry her when she was sixteen.”

The truth of my statement filled my veins with hot, white anger. I hated that I’d lost her. But that didn’t mean I should lie to Gabriella. Or myself.

I’d loved Tennessee Turner from the minute I laid eyes on her.

From the first moment I’d seen her at the nursery, and she simply shone brighter than everyone else.

And the worst thing, perhaps, was the fact that I knew Tennessee was wrong. Weak. Spineless in front of her family. A complete pushover.

…and I loved her.

Despite her weaknesses.

And, goddammit, because of them, too.

“You really love her.” Gabriella heaved a deep sigh, plopping her chin on her fist.

“Unfortunately.”

“Well, can’t say I haven’t tried.”

“You gave it your best shot, and you came closer than the rest.”

She stood up, looking around her, as if saying goodbye to everything. Knowing it was probably going to be the last time she was going to see the inside of this place.

“Your mother is going to be disappointed.” She smiled tiredly.

“My mother is perpetually disappointed.” I stood up, walking her to the door. “Besides, I’m counting on your best friend to bless her with a grandchild sooner rather than later to keep her off my case for a while.”

After I closed the door behind Gabriella, I covered the door with my frame, closing my eyes, willing the headache to dispel.