AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yeah,” he said. “Work and all that bullshit.”
I was surprised Mace stayed this long. Yesterday he’d said he wanted to leave early.
“So?”
Mace looked out across the lake. “You were right. There’s a lot to recommend this place.”
“Told ya. Some good guys here too.”
“Yeah, I like Nate a lot. Will have to give it some thought.” Mace looked sideways at me. “Might be helpful to know if I’ll have an old unit buddy in the same town.”
I sighed. “Guess we both have big decisions to make.”
“Guess so.”
Mace stood, putting down his cup. “I’m gonna grab my stuff and hit the road.”
“Sounds good,” I said, not moving as Mace made his way back into the house.
Big decisions, indeed.
It was more than an hour later, Mace long gone, my coffee cold, as I stared at the deck remembering the day Natalie tipped over in the lake. She’d been so pissed that day. Little by little, I’d broken down her barriers of hate until we sat right here in as companionable silence as I was sitting right now. Nat loved this view. The lake.
She loved me.
She’d never said it, but in all of the exchanges we had, one had told me so more than the others. Ironically, it was in KC’s, when she found out I’d rescheduled the meeting. The look of sheer disappointment, as if I’d just broken her heart, was one I hadn’t been able to erase from my memory.
You can’t break someone’s heart who doesn’t love you.
She also loved that property.
I bolted up from my seat, an idea forming. Walking down to the dock, I looked out across the lake, imagining the inlet in my mind. Next, I imagined Natalie sitting in a big Adirondack chair with the hat we’d bought her in Sicily.
Natalie. Sunshine.
The same woman who resisted being in the office with every fiber of her being, even choosing the uncomfortable wrought-iron chairs at Devine Coffeehouse just to be outside.
I knew what to do.
TWENTY-NINE
natalie
I should have called him. Talked to him one last time.
Yesterday, after my lessons with the kids, I stayed at the inlet all day, blowing off work again. I was going to have some serious catch-up to do after this week. I’d deliberately lightened my load knowing it would be a tough transition coming back from Italy, but I would be paying for these extra days off for sure.
I just didn’t have it in me to focus.
Even now, as I parked and headed into the office, I had no idea how I was supposed to do actual work. But I had to know. And there was the evidence staring me in the face.
Jax’s car.
He was here.
With every step I took toward the building, my anger grew. But I wasn’t sure if the anger was directed toward Jax or myself. Sure, I was good and pissed that he kept the meeting with Dave. But as Charlee and Zoe had pointed out last night at my self-inflicted pity party, which Zoe kindly hosted at her bar, avoiding him would solve exactly zero problems.
And wasn’t Jax worth trying to figure it out with?
