a damn about anyone but yourself! It’s all about you and what makes you feel good and you don’t even care about the people you walk away from!”
“Hey!” he cried, now completely ticked off. “You and I both know it wasn’t like that!”
Sydney was back on her feet. “It was exactly like that! You didn’t get your way—I didn’t fall in line with what you wanted, and you didn’t give a damn about what I wanted or needed!” She took a step back and pulled on her hair and let out a growl of frustration. “This is getting us nowhere. It doesn’t matter anymore. It’s ancient history and clearly for the best—you know, the way things all worked out.”
He wanted to argue, but…he was going to control himself.
“After all, I’ve heard you pretty much date anything with boobs and act like some sort of frat boy who refuses to grow up, so I guess I made the right decision.”
Or not.
Kyle leaned in until they were practically nose-to-nose. “I don’t owe you an explanation for the way I live my life, just like you don’t owe me one about yours. You don’t have to like me, but dammit, I’m here to do a job, and I’m going to do it. And you want to know why?” He didn’t wait for her answer. “Because I’m the best damn person to do it. I know it and Jake knows it. So let’s agree right now to forget about the past and that we are never going to be friends, but at least agree to call a truce while I’m here working!” He was a little breathless and almost a little ashamed and how he was letting this slip of a woman get to him. He was the first to admit that he usually enjoyed a good fight, but never with a woman.
Never.
Even his sister—who could be a major pain in the ass—never got him this riled up.
And that was saying something.
Wiping away at the remnants of her tears, Sydney nodded. “Fine. Truce. Just…”
“Yeah, I know. No nicknames,” he said before she could. “Got it, Ms. Albright.”
And without another word, Sydney walked back into the house.
In a move that was becoming all too familiar, Sydney rested her back against the door and let out a shaky breath.
Like it wasn’t bad enough that the man pushed all her buttons by just being who he was and reminding her of a time she’d rather forget, he had to call her that stupid nickname and then see her cry.
Awesome.
Yeah, she was definitely not living her best life right now.
Although she was due for a good cry.
For the last two weeks, she had been doing better—crying less. She seriously felt like she had turned a corner and was finally moving on from her grief. But now that she let those first tears fall, she knew it wasn’t going to be easy to stop.
Right now, Haley was out with her friend Janie and there wasn’t anything that she had to be doing. Pushing away from the door, she walked down the hall to the guest room she was using—she still hadn’t been able to sleep in Tracy’s room—and closed the door. In the distance, she could hear Kyle working, but she tuned him out. Instead, she curled up on the bed and let out a long breath, and before she knew it, tears were flowing.
And they kept on flowing until she heard Haley calling her name.
When she glanced at the clock on her nightstand, she saw over an hour had passed and she felt both mentally and physically drained. It was four in the afternoon and she had no idea how she was going to make it through the rest of the day.
Maybe she should have gone with her parents to Florida. Perhaps she needed to take some time to truly come to grips with all the ways her life was changing.
Maybe if she did, she wouldn’t have emotional breakdowns in front of strangers.
Okay, technically Kyle Jones wasn’t really a stranger. She knew him as a boy, a young man. This version of him—all grown up and sexy as hell—was a stranger to her.
“Aunt Syd! I’m home! Can Janie stay for dinner?”
That was her cue to get up and stop feeling sorry for herself. Wiping at her face, she left her room. “I’ll be out in a minute!” she called out before going into the bathroom and quickly washing her face. Her reflection still showed that she looked like