love me to the bone. I want a divorce, Scott. I want to move on with my life and you should too.”
I left him standing there, in the middle of a magical concert, on a picturesque summer night. I left him and walked home and cried my eyes out. It was much harder than I made it look. I was a good actress after all.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Sydney
“I swear all men are deaf––” Laurel squinted and took another gulp of her margarita.
“Too bad they don’t all look like Drake Wayland,” one of Laurel’s friends said.
“Too bad,” another friend chimed in.
“––and if I’m wrong…well, then we’re all fucked. Because that would mean they’re just plain stupid.” Laurel had started to slur her words an hour ago and I was laughing like a hyena. We were all equally hammered. But hey, I was taking the summer off from work.
Everybody had gone to Laurel and Pete’s for barbecue bonanza, something the locals had started when summer hit. It was the Robinson’s turn to host this week.
“You ladies good on food? Syd? Want another burger?” Pete asked.
“I’m stuffed. Thanks, Pete.” I started drinking shortly after arriving, when I thought Scott might make an appearance. These were his people too, after all. But halfway through the evening, I breathed a sigh of relief when I realized he was purposely staying away.
A letter and a bouquet of black magic roses had been delivered the other day. The letter basically laid out what he believed, that Frank had set the entire thing up. That knowing Scott the way he did, he knew what his reaction would have been once he’d found out. That it was Frank’s last, best maneuver to get Scott to take his place as CEO.
In all honesty, it didn’t sound so farfetched. As a matter of fact, it sounded exactly like something Frank would do. I didn’t want to believe that, all along, Frank’s master plan had been to get Scott to take the position of CEO, but it made sense. It was a classic Frank Blackstone move. Sacrifice the pawn to save the king. Regardless, it didn’t excuse Scott for how he’d treated me, a person he purported to love.
“Hey, man. Good to see you,” some guy I didn’t recognize said. I glanced up and watched him clasp hands with Scott.
“Time for a graceful exit,” I said to our picnic table, a bunch of Laurel’s friends who had welcomed me into their group with open arms.
“Aww, sweetie. Don’t let him run you off. He can stay over there with the rest of his kind,” Laurel said pointing to the men around the drinks cooler.
No sooner had Laurel spoken than Scott turned and looked straight at me with an expression so broken it actually hurt me to see him look that way, my stomach getting tangled up in knots. There wasn’t even a glimpse of the man he used to be.
Breaking eye contact, I planted a kiss on Laurel’s cheek and got up. She’d been mother–henning me since I moved back. “See you in a few.”
With Scott busy saying hello to the guys, I ordered an Uber and tried with as much stealth as possible to slip out to the front yard without being noticed.
“Where are you going?”
No such luck. He’d caught up to me in the shadows of the side of the house, where the only source of light was the moon and the front yard landscape lights.
Stiffening, I turned. “Home. I think it’s best.”
His gaze cut down before returning to me. “I’ve been thinking about what you said––”
“Scott––”
“Please…just hear me out,” he said, close to begging, voice rough.
This was torture, loving someone and driving them away. Seeing them in pain and not doing anything to soothe it. I didn’t agree, but I didn’t walk away, either.
“Maybe you’re right…”
Not what I was expecting to hear.
“I put my pride ahead of you. Of us. And I’m more sorry about that than anything else I’ve ever done…but you’re wrong about me not loving you to the bone. I do. I have from the start. It’s changed me and there’s no changing back…you’re in my bones forever. The way I’m in yours…”
“I’ve gotta go,” I mumbled standing stock-still as he took a lock of my hair between his fingers.
“For better or worse––isn’t that what the vows are? We’ve been through the worse. Gimme a chance to show you the better.”
Bending his head, he kissed me on the lips, the touch whisper light. I closed my eyes and pretended