That instinct is what traps me in a bubble of resentment. But were you ever truly out on your own? Or did you just find someone else to take care of you?
Heat smarts my cheeks, the dress turning abrasive in my hands.
Powerless, I can do nothing but try and take some of my pride.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
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Username: LittleMissMorbid
Not to be weird or anything, guys, but…have they pulled her dental records yet? Just to save time?
Jason
Amazing as it seems, I’d forgotten about the wedding dress hanging in her closet. I’m not sure how, since it represents something wholly unacceptable to me. Naomi married to another man. If she’d gone down the aisle in the thing and recited her vows, I never would have met her. We never would have crossed paths. Or if we had, she would have been off limits to me. I hate that fucking dress with every fiber of my being and she’s handling it like a newborn baby. Hell, she seems irritated that I interrupted. I’m on shaky ground already after having her father dismiss me with a rich guy sniff and not being privy to their conversation—an important one, I’m sure of it. So her snapping eyes hit my chest like shock paddles. She needs something from me, I just don’t know what it is yet. Only that I need to provide it.
“What are you doing?”
“Packing.”
That single, defiant word catapults a boulder into the center of my chest. Her plan was to leave after the pageant. Her packing shouldn’t catch me off-guard like this. But it does. How can she leave when I can’t imagine a day without her? For the first time, I notice the open suitcase on the bed. It’s full of her clothes.
No. Uh-uh. I’m rendered helpless in an instant and I need to shake it. Now. I’m not a man who can exist long in a state of helplessness. Not during battle, not even at the supermarket. But sure as hell not when the woman I love is on the line. “Put down the dress and let’s talk about what happened with your father.”
Her eyes flash. “Don’t tell me what to do.”
“Fine.” My voice is actually hoarse with the need to get that dress out of my sight. Away from her. “Can you please put it somewhere I don’t have to look at it?”
For just a second, Naomi from this morning is back, her expression softening. She turns in a rigid circle, searching for a place to stow the garment, before finally hanging it back in the closet and shutting the door. “I have a lot to do before the pageant tomorrow night. I won’t be able to have dinner or…I’ll be busy right up until the competition, actually.” She’s still not facing me. “Just leave me to it, Jason.”
Could she really go that long without me so easily? I couldn’t. Having her send me away when I’m prepared to lay my fucking heart on the line is unacceptable. “Leave you to what? Your stuff is already in the suitcase. Unless you’re planning on packing the appliances, you’re done. Come down to the house with me.”
Naomi whirls, hands fisted at her sides. “What part about don’t tell me what to do didn’t you understand?”
I massage my brain through my skull. Calm. Keep calm. It must have been a hell of a fight between Naomi and her father. I’m coming in blind and I need to be patient. “I’m sorry. I just want to help.”
“Yes, I know. Poor little Naomi is always in need of help, isn’t she?” She cuts through the apartment, collecting knick-knacks as she goes and stuffing them into her suitcase. “Jason, let me ask you a question. Do you really think I could start my own pageant coaching business, or did you just say that because you wouldn’t be around when I found out you’d lied?”
Thrown for a loop, it takes me a second to catch up, but that negative, helpless part of me rebels hardest at being called a liar by the woman I’m crazy about. “Christ. What are you talking about? I’ve never lied to you, Naomi.” I can’t have this conversation with furniture between us, so I advance closer, my neck tightening when she backs toward the windows. “What the hell did your father say to you?”
“Nothing that probably…nothing that isn’t true.” She stares into space for a moment, breaking the spell with a jerky shrug. “He has the family’s best interest at heart. Unlike me. I’ve been down here having a complete break from reality. I’m not the only person affected by my bad decisions—”
“Am I a bad decision?”
Her mouth snaps shut, her eyes regretful. But she doesn’t make a denial and a fire spreads in my sternum, ripping through my city and burning down skyscrapers. “Do you think if I’d landed on someone else’s doorstep that I could have lasted this long on my own?” Naomi asks instead, her vulnerability plain.