and after a few beats, she comes closer and takes it. “It was an accident. It’s not like you threw the fucking vase at me.”
She sniffles. “You had me so angry, I wanted to throw the damn thing at you. And in my hurry to leave, I broke it.”
She’s so fierce and sad all at the same time, but I hate that she feels so guilty.
“It’s my own fault for making you so mad.” I cock my head. “You still wanna go stay at a hotel?”
“No.” She lifts her chin. “How am I supposed to leave you limping around?”
Not exactly a declaration of love. “Don’t stay out of pity. I can take care of myself.”
“Do you want me to leave?” She drops down on the bed next to me.
“Christ, Mallory. I tore up my foot trying to stop you from leaving. No.”
Her lashes flutter and she twists her fingers in her lap. “Then why would you ask me if I want to…to sleep with someone else? The way you asked was humiliating.”
In addition to the pain in my foot, my head throbs. I’d do anything to erase those words from her memory.
“Maybe I don’t have as much experience,” she continues, “But I love you. Why would you say those things?”
I blow out a breath and turn away. “Just stuff I’ve been thinking about since we got engaged.”
Stupid bullshit my father put in my head for no damn good reason.
“You don’t want to get married anymore?” Her voice falls to a whisper. “We don’t have to.” She stares at her ring and slowly twists it around her finger. “We can wait if that’s what you want.”
Hell-fucking-no, I want to go down to City Hall this weekend and tie the knot before I return to Vancouver. “It’s not that.”
“Then what?”
I strip off my shirt and toss it toward the closet before falling back against the pillows. “I don’t want to talk about it right now.”
“Well.” She shifts and kneels up next to me so she can look me in the eyes. “You’re a captive audience at the moment. What are you going to do, get up and hobble away if I want an explanation?”
“I can hobble if I need to.” I reach over and swipe the bottle of pills the doc left and rattle it at her. “He gave me some damn good pain killers.”
“Chaser, I’m serious. What’s going on?”
She’s not going to drop it and I owe her an explanation. I scrub my hands over my face a few times to help get the words moving. “My father said some shit while we were home. That, combined with the way Andrew’s so obviously been after you. Being away from you again. It’s been bugging me.” Why didn’t I tell her all of this sooner?
“So your father isn’t happy about us?”
“We talked it out. He apologized—which he doesn’t do often.”
“This was at our engagement party wasn’t it?”
“Right before.” I rest my hands on her shoulders and squeeze. “It doesn’t matter what he thinks or what he said. It changed nothing for me.”
“But he told you I’m too…inexperienced to be your wife? I don’t understand.”
My lips twitch in disgust as I recall my father’s crude words, then shame when I realize in the heat of the moment, I said even worse to Mallory. “It was stupid stuff. Things that had more to do with him and my mother than you and me. Believe me, I had it out with him.” I drop my gaze and shake my head. “But I don’t know. Some of it must have clung to me.”
“Your father’s a forceful man. Whether you accept it or not, his opinion matters to you.” She briefly touches the back of my hand, drawing my attention up again. “Still, you could have told me. I wouldn’t have been mad at you.”
I snort out a laugh. “I like that you two have your budding father-daughter relationship thing going on. I didn’t want to ruin that. I made it clear his ‘advice’ wasn’t welcome.”
“Huh.” She bites her lip. “Do you think it’s possible my father threatened him after our visit?”
Well, fuck. I’d gotten so riled up at the details he shared about my mother, I’d never given a lot of thought to what prompted the conversation. Maybe that was his goal. “I guess it’s possible.” Even for my dad, who’s about as vulgar as they come, the whole thing was pretty disgusting and seemed to come out of nowhere.