I shake my head. It should help, he’s taking away the logical basis of all the reasons I’m sad, but I still feel terrible. “Why are you being nice? You’re an impossible man to trust.”
“I know,” he murmurs, rubbing my back. “I’m being nice because I like you, and I don’t want to make you sad anymore. That’s simple, right?”
“You didn’t care about making me sad yesterday,” I point out. “What changed?”
He taps the discolored skin around his eye. “Remember this?”
“You gave up because Sin punched you?” I ask skeptically.
“No, I gave up because I lost. Only a fool keeps fighting once the fight is over. The wise man moves on. You let a man sneak into my house thinking he was here to kill me yesterday, kitten. You knew he was coming and you didn’t warn me. I remained interested in you when I thought there was still something to work with, but there’s nothing left. You aren’t loyal to me, and that means you and I have no romantic future. It couldn’t be clearer. You can’t build a relationship with a woman who tries to kill you. If someone wants to disagree with me, fine, but I never would. Not in a million years. Once a woman tries to help someone else kill me, strangely enough, I don’t want to pursue a romantic relationship with her anymore.”
“Now you’re just making me feel mean again,” I tell him, my face crumbling.
Sighing heavily, he hugs me tighter. “That was not my intention. I’m not mad; I understand why you did it. I was only trying to explain so you know you can trust my retreat. There’s plenty of blame on me for this not working out, too. Like you said, it just didn’t work, that’s all. There’s no need for either of us to feel badly about it. We’ll still have a relationship, just not a romantic one.”
“See, now I’m back to worrying you’re lonely.”
“How about a distraction?” Rex suggests. “You got any playing cards? Let’s play some poker.”
“I don’t know how to play poker,” I mutter, still a little peeved at him for calling me emotionally unstable.
“Good idea, Rex. I’ll teach you,” Rafe tells me.
“I don’t have any money, either. I spent it all on groceries.”
>
“I’ll give you some money, too. Who knows? Maybe you’ll beat us both and take home all the winnings.”
“I wouldn’t count on that,” I tell him.
“I wouldn’t either, you’re a shitty liar. I’m just trying to make you less irrationally upset. Is it working at all? I’ll pay you to stop sniffling, if that will help.”
So, after dinner, we play poker. I lose all the money Rafe gave me to play with, but they’re both so afraid I’ll burst into tears again that they spot me enough to play one more hand, then shamelessly let me win so it ends on a positive note.
I feel ridiculous, but my nerves have just had it. Between the hell of yesterday, the high of last night and this morning, and then the fear of tonight—plus not knowing where Sin is or what is happening even now—I just can’t take anymore. After poker, I curl up on the couch and Rex keeps watch while I drift off.
49
Laurel
My eyes fly open with some kind of urgency, like it’s my first day of work and I’ve slept past my alarm. There’s movement in the living room—a lot more movement than when I went to sleep.
My heart leaps at the sound of Sin’s voice. “Put it right there.”
I blink and smile, relief washing over me as I see him standing in the living room with his back to me. He’s safe. Everything must have gone according to plan.
Rex’s voice joins in next. He sounds unsure. “I don’t know what to do with it.”
“Her, not it,” Sin snaps. “Just fucking hold her, what do you mean?”
Her? I look over at Rex and see him looking down at a baby on his chest like he expects her to bite him. She’s starting to fuss at him, because he is not working Sin magic.
Wait, why is Skylar here?
Pushing myself upright, I say, “You’re back.”
Sin turns around at the sound of my voice, smiling faintly and coming over to tenderly caress my face. “Yeah, I’m back.”