a little. “I think . . . I want my apartment.”
“Then get that apartment.”
Her expression fell. “I can’t. I don’t have the money. I’m all out of clothes and jewelry.”
He frowned. “You’ve been selling your clothes?”
Amy managed a small smile through her sniffles. “Oh yeah. Everything was designer and high-end. It was the only stuff I really got out of the divorce, other than the promise of alimony. So I’ve been selling my shoes and my handbags and anything I could to make ends meet while I waited for checks to come in.” A little sigh escaped her. “Money that’s never going to come in, now. My ex filed for bankruptcy just to screw me out of my alimony payments.”
Hearing that made him irrationally angry. What kind of asshole let his woman suffer because she wanted to spread her wings? “I’ll give you that money,” he growled. “You tell me how much you need.”
“No!” she said quickly. “I don’t want your money. I don’t want to use you, Caleb.”
“You never have. I don’t know where you got it in your head that you . . .” Where was this coming from? He suddenly had an idea. His eyes narrowed. “You said your ex made you feel small. That he made you feel useless. Did he call you? Fill your head with this shit?”
“He didn’t call me.” She smoothed her fingers over the front of his coat.
Caleb sighed with relief.
“He showed up on my doorstep.”
Just like that, every muscle in his body went on high alert. The need to protect her—to shelter her—roared through him. “He what?”
“He’s here in town,” she said in a small voice. “He showed up yesterday and tried to get me to go home with him.”
Everything in him was screaming to find the bastard. His jaw clenched, and he could feel muscles twitching in his effort to remain calm. “What did you tell him?”
“At first, I just . . . let him talk. I just shut down.” She buried her face against his neck again, quivering. “I hated that about myself. It only took moments for him to tear me down again.”
“But you’re here,” he managed to say calmly. “You didn’t go with him.”
“I told him I had a boyfriend,” Amy confessed. “And that I didn’t want to go with him.”
Fierce joy rocked him. She’d stood up to the bastard. She’d stood up to the man who’d tried to make her so damn small and told him she had someone new. She had Caleb. He was so damn proud of her. Even more than that, everything was clicking into place. “Did he show up before or after you came to tell me we were done?”
“Before,” she admitted, shamefaced. “He made me feel . . .”
“I know.” Caleb could very well guess how her shitty, controlling, terrible ex-husband made her feel. “It doesn’t matter. I’m proud of you for standing up to him.”
She sighed. “Don’t be too proud. He didn’t believe me. Or maybe he thought if he just kept talking like I was a babbling idiot that I’d believe him and cave. Either way, he said he’d be back today and that I had to be packed.” Her mouth twisted. “I’m not packed. I’m not going anywhere with him.”
“Good.” He rubbed her back again. “That’s step one. You realize that you are an independent person and you don’t need his shit. Even if you and I don’t work out, you need to remember that you are an amazing, kind, thoughtful, generous person, Amy Mckinney, and anyone that tells you otherwise is a jackass and a fool.”
Her eyes met his. “I want us to work out.”
“I want that, too.” Caleb was determined to make the two of them work. He was willing to be as patient as he needed to be, as long as the end result was Amy in his arms. “And you want your apartment.”
“I can’t afford it.”
“Then you figure out a way to get the money, baby. If you want it, go after it.” He tilted his head, studying her. “Can I loan you the money?”
A stubborn look crossed her face. “No.”
Caleb grinned, because he’d known that answer before he even asked. “Then you figure out another way. You get a second job. Or you get a loan from the bank. You’ll figure something out. You’re smart.”
Her eyes lit up. “A loan from the bank. I tried to get one when I first got divorced, but they said I didn’t have enough credit established. I’ve