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Wallace straightened from leaning on the palm tree where he’d been standing with his focus on the building. Had he been watching it?
“Liberty.” That familiar smile of his, which now made me cringe, spread across his face.
“Wallace, wasn’t expecting to see you,” I replied tightly, wishing I had a car in this parking lot to get in and drive away. As it was, I had to walk two blocks over to my apartment.
“I think I forgot how beautiful you are,” he said, tilting his head and studying me.
“I’m tired, Wallace. I’d say it’s good to see you, but I’m not a liar. If you’ll excuse me, I want to go home,” I told him, stepping around his tall frame.
“Wait, Liberty, please. Talk to me. How are you? How is the”—he paused, and his eyes dropped to my stomach—“baby?” He let out a small laugh. “Even pregnant, you are stunning.”
My grip tightened on my purse strap hanging over my shoulder. “I’m good. Baby is great. Thanks for asking,” I told him with growing annoyance.
“Let me take you to dinner. Just as friends. To catch up,” he began.
I shook my head, not letting him continue. “No. You and I aren’t ever going to be friends,” I said.
Once again, I tried to step around him, but he continued to move when I did, keeping me there.
“You’re hurt, which means you still love me. You know that. If you didn’t feel something for me, then you wouldn’t be trying to escape me.”
The cocky gleam in his eyes had me rolling mine.
“I can promise you that my not wanting to have dinner with you isn’t because I have any feelings for you. I don’t. Those have been gone for a very long time. And what I did feel, it wasn’t love. I just didn’t realize it until I actually fell in love.”
Wallace’s eyes narrowed. “The father of the baby? You love him?”
I said nothing. He didn’t get to know my personal life. He didn’t get to know me.
“Where is he now? Hmm?” He held out his hands and looked around us. “I don’t see him out here, trying to take you to dinner.”
I didn’t say he loved me in return, you asshole.
I stood there, waiting for him to finish whatever ridiculousness this was so I could leave.
His hardened expression softened. “I’m sorry, baby. I just miss you. I can’t stop thinking about you. Worrying about you.”
He reached out to touch my arm, and I moved back.
“I want to go home, Wallace. Please, leave me alone.”
He sighed, then stepped to the side and waved a hand for me to go. “Another time then,” he said.
God, I hoped not. I would have to start exiting the building out of the stairwell that led into the back and walk to the apartment on that street instead. It would only add a quarter of a mile. Anything was better than dealing with Wallace again.
42
Liam
“You not coming down to the floor tonight? Two of the new girls are onstage later. I think I did good,” Tex told me as he stood in the doorway to my office.
I took another drink from the bottle of whiskey on my desk and shook my head. “I’m only here because if I had to sit in that house without her one more day, I was going to burn it to the ground.”
Tex walked inside. “Let’s not burn shit,” he said. “It’s just been a little over a week.”
My bloodshot eyes lifted to meet his. “Nine days and three hours since I walked into that house to silence. No scent of whatever meal she’d made. No smile to greet me that took the darkness away. It was all gone. It is gone. Not one goddamn private detective in this motherfucking state or the surrounding ones will help me,” I said as my hand tightened around the bottle I was still holding.
My chest heaved as the hole she’d left in it reminded me of how empty my life was now.
