“Aw, darlin’—”
She talked right over him, as if she had to get this out or she wouldn’t finish. “I’m fine. They keep an eye on it, but it hasn’t come back. It might never come back.” She set her beer aside. “But after the chemo was done, Eric sat me down and told me that he’d never signed on for this kind of commitment, especially when the possibility of biological children was gone.” Her smile was so brittle, it felt like it actually cut him. “Besides, I was never that good in bed to begin with.”
“I’ll kill him.” Luke twisted the cloth napkin between his hands, imagining it was that piece of shit’s neck. He knew he was mangling it, but if he didn’t keep himself busy, he might lose his shit right here and now.
He looked up to find Alexis’s eyes unnaturally wide. “Uh… That’s not necessary.”
This was what she was running from. Her asshole ex who’d kicked her when she was down. What kind of man said something like that to a woman he was supposed to love enough to marry? Even more than that, what kind of man tossed a woman like Alexis to the side solely because she couldn’t have biological children? She’d just survived fucking cancer and that’s all that idiot could focus on? He gritted his teeth. “It has nothing to do with necessary. It’ll be my pleasure.”
“That’s, uh, sweet, but no thanks.” Her hand shook a little when she drank her beer. “Besides, it’s nothing worse than what Yé-yé said afterward. I’m one gigantic black spot on the family honor, apparently.”
Jesus Christ. He was half a step away from burning her whole fucking town to the ground. “Your dad sat back and let these assholes talk to you like that?”
“It’s not like that.” Her eyes flashed at his attack of her father. “Dad loves me regardless of if I’m following Yé-yé’s wishes or not. And I don’t think he liked Eric all that much to begin with. Avery definitely didn’t.”
Yeah, from what he knew of his brief interaction with Avery last year, she would have been raring and ready to hamstring Alexis’s ex after knowing he said that to her. So why didn’t she? Neither Avery nor Flannery’s little brother were known for their restraint. Unless… “You didn’t tell your sister, did you?”
“She knows how our grandfather feels about me.”
Which was a neat side step. Luke narrowed his eyes. “Do your sister and dad know about what your ex said to you?”
“They’re not stupid, and Eric’s timing wasn’t subtle.”
Which wasn’t the same thing as her telling them the truth. He had a feeling that Alexis had made a habit of stuffing down her issues from the time her mother died. So her hurt and betrayal at both her grandfather and fiancé—two people who should have been at her back no matter what life threw at her—had been bottled up until she couldn’t deal with it anymore, and…
Realization hit. Avery was pregnant.
That had to be the catalyst for her booking a ticket to Europe without a word of warning. Not that he could voice his realization to Alexis, because how the hell would he know that her sister was knocked up? So he set aside the knowledge and reached across the table to take her hand. “I’m going to tell you something, and I need you to perk up those pretty ears because I’m only going to say it once. You listening?”
“Not every part of me is pretty.” When he just stared, she sighed. “Yes, I’m listening.”
“You are a beautiful fucking person, Alexis, and your ability to have kids has absolutely nothing to do with your worth. Nothing. You hear me?” It wasn’t like his words would magically take away the wounds of the past, but she needed to hear them spoken aloud.
And he needed to say them.
Her lower lip trembled a little, but she managed a smile and a nod. “I hear you, Luke.”
Chapter Sixteen
As they walked out of the café, Alexis didn’t think she’d ever felt so raw before. She’d given him everything, and he hadn’t so much as balked or made a snide comment. Instead he’d looked into her eyes and voiced the one thing she’d needed to hear above all others. She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do now. Hold his hand? Kiss him? Drag him off to the nearest hostel and get him naked as quickly as physically possible? She looked around, taking in the architecture that