Work In Progress (Red Lipstick Coalition #3) - Staci Hart Page 0,132
stairs. Gus’s head rose, his eyes big and sad. He didn’t get up, didn’t bound over to me. He just lay there in his post in front of her door, watching me with accusation as I walked through the room.
“Come on, buddy. Wanna go for a walk?”
The trigger phrase always turned him into a hysterical bundle of fur. But today, he just lowered his head to his paws in refusal.
I strode to him and got down on my haunches. Stroked his head. Sighed.
“I miss her, too,” I said.
He let out a sigh of his own.
Hand on my thigh, I pushed myself to stand, turning for the door. I needed to get out of the house. It wasn’t even eight in the morning, and I’d spent the last two hours staring at an empty page, fruitlessly willing words to come. I refused to sit there all day again with nothing to show for.
I trotted down the steps and to Ma’s place, looking for a distraction.
She sat on the couch, drinking coffee with a book. “Morning, honey,” she said, smiling.
“Hey, Ma.”
She slipped her bookmark in, and when she closed the book and I saw the cover, something in my chest twisted painfully. I sat next to her, thumbing the edge of the pages.
“Lord of Scoundrels. That’s a good one. What part are you at?”
“Dain just kissed her in the rain and ran off, left her there in the street, all alone.” Her eyes were soft with understanding. “You can’t deny Amelia has good taste.”
“No, I suppose I can’t,” I said softly.
“You holding up?”
“Not really.”
“Still no words?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know how the story ends, Ma.”
“Well,” she started gently, “a grand gesture wouldn’t hurt. Forgiveness. Apology. Acceptance.”
“I don’t know how to do that. I don’t know how to forget.”
“Nobody says you should try to forget.”
I didn’t respond.
“I know you’re hurt. I do, and you’re not wrong to be. But you betrayed her trust, too.”
I frowned, glancing at her.
“You didn’t believe she was trying to protect you by not telling you.”
I shook my head. “It’s not that, Ma. I do believe her. I was—am—mad she didn’t tell me, but I believe her. I hate that it went down like it did, that she gave Janessa ammunition, even though it wasn’t intentional. But she didn’t trust me when it came down to it. She believed them. She believed some bullshit article and Vivienne’s lie.”
“But how long will you hold on to that? You love her, Tommy.”
“What is love without trust?” I thumbed my lip. “I was mad about her lying about Janessa. But I was broken by her lack of faith in me.”
“I don’t know if I’d say she lied.”
“Omission is just another brand of lie. You know it as well as I do.”
She drew a long breath and let it out slow. “She’s just so inexperienced. I understand how she could have jumped to the conclusion.”
“I can’t. Not for the life of me.”
Ma’s face bent in determination. “Amelia has known you for years as a womanizer, thanks to you and your Teddy’s scheming. You’ve slept with Vivienne before. You got in a fight with Amelia, left her here while you stormed off, pouting. Should I remind you that this is exactly what a character in one of your novels would do? Is it really so hard to see how she could have misunderstood?”
“She shoulda called me,” I insisted, ignoring the truth of the rest. “She shoulda waited. Asked. Something. Anything but this.”
Ma nodded. “She should have. But honey, all of this is a misunderstanding. A mistake. Do you really think you can walk away from her without a single regret?”
The question shot a bolt down my spine. It hadn’t occurred to me to ask it so plainly of myself. I hadn’t been ready to face that truth. But when I looked into my future, Amelia was there. She was right there. And I couldn’t see myself without her.
I swallowed hard.
“Your weakness is this idea that you’re invulnerable. But you can’t go through life without being hurt. You can’t love without risk to your heart. Amelia is the only thing that could truly hurt you, and you ran away from that pain because you’re afraid of it. But honey, listen to me,” she said, taking my hand, searching my eyes. “You love her. So get her back.”
“I don’t even know what to say to her,” I said softly.
“Think about all the mistakes you’ve made, all the forgiveness you’ve been given. There’s a place