I told him to leave you alone. I said you had plenty of support here and that he’d be in the way, and what did he do? Stuck to you like glue. He’ll hurt you, hun.”
“I will not,” countered Edward, offended.
“You did.”
“This is not your business.”
“And it’s yours? Last I heard, you two were divorced.”
“Divorced means we were married once, and being married means I shared a hell of a lot more with her than you ever will.”
“Excuuuuse, me,” Kevin sang on an up note, “but that sounded suspiciously like a homophobic remark. Is that your problem?”
I might have laughed, if the two of them hadn’t been so serious.
“Ah, Christ,” swore Edward, who didn’t swear often. “Are you seriously resorting to that? No, I’m not homophobic. I have gay best friends and gay business partners.” Looking at me, he hitched his head toward Kevin. “Tell him, Maggie. Let’s get this off the table right now, because I don’t want to fucking hear it again.”
“He’s right, Kev,” I said quietly. “Try something else.”
“Okayyy. How about his showing up here like he owns the place—”
“I do own—”
“—like you’re supposed to welcome him with open arms?”
“I didn’t expect open arms,” Edward shouted. He sounded exasperated—competing with Kevin?
“What the fuck did you expect?”
“Guys,” I said to keep the hostilities in some kind of check.
Edward lowered his voice, though it remained directed at Kevin. “I expected to be able to talk with my wife without a go-between.”
He was turning to me again when Kevin fired back. “She isn’t your wife, she’s your ex-wife, and why in the hell would I leave her alone with you? I’ve seen her knotted up so hard she’s in pain. She came here all alone and got a good job and made friends, which was pretty obvious tonight, in case you didn’t notice. She’s finally getting her life straight, and now you show up, bringing her brother, no less, the two of you just messing her up again.”
Edward stared at him, pale eyes lethal, voice grim. “You don’t have a clue.”
“I think I do. Maggie is my friend. I love her.”
Edward opened his mouth, about to speak. At the last minute, though, he turned from Kevin to me and said, “So. Do. I.”
Utter silence followed. The words were just words. But the eyes—those eyes—Edward’s eyes held mine, adding more angst than the words alone could bear.
Kevin must have sensed it, because he said nothing at all, which made it worse. In that split second, I realized how alike these two men were. Both were perceptive. Both were guileless. Kevin’s continuing silence was a recognition of the import of the moment, which made Edward’s declaration all the more real.
Suddenly, I was neither entertained nor mesmerized. What I felt was that awful tightness in my chest, and in my mind, pure panic.
Flattening my gloves over my ears, I broke away. “Okay, I’m done here.” I set off for my car as quickly as I dared, ears covered until I was clear of them, or thought I was. But there came the crunch of boots on the freezing pavement, growing nearer, and Edward’s voice calling my name. I broke into a run.
The footsteps gained anyway, and suddenly I saw myself reaching the truck but making a mess of climbing in and locking the door. So, the instant I grasped the door handle, I turned. He was right there.
“No,” I ordered. “No, Edward.”
“That wasn’t how I wanted to tell you.”
“Do not say another word.”
I pulled the door open and had a foot on the running board when he said, “I meant it.”
“Which part?” I cried, because the past was right back with us. “The part where you asked how I could possibly miss a STOP sign—or the one where you said, forget the STOP sign, how could I not see the intersection—or the one where you said that everything changed, that nothing would be the same?” I climbed in. “Leave it, Edward. I had to. Let it go.”
“We need to talk. I’ll come to your place.”
“Can’t. Liam’s there.”
“Then my place.”
“Oh no. No, no, no. No sex.”
“To talk.”
I just shook my head, slammed the door, and started the truck. But then all I could do was grip the wheel with both hands and try to catch my breath. It had never been as bad as this before. From a far recess of my mind came the echo of a CALM order, but it was too distant to do much good. My chest was squeezing so