about it now. My only recourse is to clean up the mess as best I can. “I’m in love with her.”
“You loved me too, or at least that’s what you said.” Meredith’s chin tilts, and she smooths a hand over her white top tied at the waist, flashing a strip of skin above the waistband of her jeans.
“I thought I did.” I scrub my hand over my jaw. “I’ve got to talk to Cat.”
“I’ll wait.” She walks over to the chair Cat’s grandfather built. The one I’d been sitting in the night Cat finally came to me.
Meredith sits down, looking all sorts of wrong. “I’ve got nowhere to go.”
I cannot fucking believe this. “What’s it going to take to get you to leave?”
She taps her finger on her chin like she’s thinking it over, real careful. “How about we get your new girlfriend and tell her the truth together?” She flashes a smile. “At least that way I’ll be assured you can’t weasel out of it with some lie.”
“You know this won’t change anything, don’t you?” I do my best to reason with her, even though it’s hopeless. “I told you that night it was over between us.”
She rolls her eyes. “You didn’t mean that.”
“I did.” I glance at the house. I don’t have time to deal with this crazy right now. I need to talk to Cat as soon as possible and minimize the damage. “I’m going to Cat. I’ll deal with you later.”
And before she can say another word, I’m racing back to the house.
I fling open the door and call out, “Cat?”
“She’s upstairs,” Gwen says from the sitting room.
I turn to see her, Wyatt and Jackson, and none of them look pleased. I hold up a hand. “I promise I can explain all of this, but I need to talk to Cat first, cool?”
Wyatt narrows a gaze on me. “She’s got some pretty interesting claims.”
“She’s…not in her right mind.”
One of Gwen’s brows rises. “Are you actually claiming crazy ex-girlfriend here?”
“Yes!” I run a hand through my hair. “Is it that hard to believe?”
Jackson swirls the toothpick hanging out of his mouth. “Hayes, of the Happy Harvest Hayes?”
I sigh. Happy Harvest is one of the top-producing heirloom organic farmers in the US. I’m not surprised he’s heard of it, which is exactly why I didn’t want to discuss my past employment history. They’d call, and then Meredith would have found out where I’d gone, and then this would happen.
The evasion didn’t end up saving me anything, did it? All it did was cost me everything. And isn’t that just like me? Always making the shittiest decision imaginable.
I nod. “Yes.”
He shrugs. “I put in a call. I’m waiting to hear back.”
I glance toward the stairs leading to Cat. “You let me know if I need to pack my bags, but I need to talk to Cat.”
I turn and bound up two stairs at a time, but when I hit the landing, she’s at the top, dragging a suitcase. She gives me a scathing look. “I’m out of here.”
“Wait. Let’s talk.”
Her hand tightens on the handle. “Is that woman still here?”
“Yes. She won’t leave.”
She walks down two stairs and the wheels bounce too loud against the steps. “Don’t worry, I will.”
“I don’t want you to leave. I want to talk.”
She looks at me. “I’ll stay if you answer one question.”
I am 100-percent certain this will be a question that will make matters worse, but what other choice do I have? “What?”
“Are you engaged to that woman?”
I shake my head. “No, not anymore.”
“But you were?”
“Um…kinda.”
She frowns at me. “Goodbye, Caden.”
“No, wait. Please let me explain.”
“You never thought to tell me this? Not once in all the times we’ve spoken?”
“No, I didn’t.” I shake my head. “It wasn’t relevant.”
“You having a fiancée didn’t seem relevant?”
“She’s not my fiancée. She was a horrible mistake, and I didn’t want to talk about it.”
“I don’t even know what to say to that.” She pushes past me, dragging her suitcase with her.
I grab her arm. “Cat, let’s just go upstairs and talk this through.”
She stares at me, her expression tight with confusion, her eyes searching. “Did you leave her in the middle of the night, like she said?”
I understand why she’s asking, because she had a father who did the same. And if I’d do it to one woman, I’m likely to do it to her too. More than anything I want for this not to be true, but I don’t want to lie. The truth