Page 45 of Trick
Trick gave me Bull’s number so I could text him my username and password.
When I finished, Trick tugged me back down to sit next to him on the couch.
“I want to circle back to his latest email, darlin’. I don’t like the sound of that ‘til death do us partbullshit, and what did he mean when he apologized for hurting you? You said he wasn’t violent.”
“He wasn’t,” I confirmed. “I assume he was talking about hurting me by cheating on me, but yeah, the‘til deathstuff was definitely odd. It’s not like we had said our wedding vows yet.”
“He’s escalating, Lauren, and that’s a dangerous sign.”
I exhaled shakily, suddenly exhausted by this whole situation. “When this started, it was hard to believe that Beaucould be a real threat, but I don’t think I can deny it anymore.” I admitted softly.
Trick wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me close, so that my head rested on his shoulder. After a moment’s hesitation, I slid my arm around his waist and relaxed into his hold.
“I should have known better than to get involved with him.”
“What do you mean?”
I chuckled bitterly. “On our first date, we ran into one of his ex-girlfriends. She told me that Beau was a player and wished me luck. He assured me she was just bitter about being dumped. I believed him. On our second date, the restaurant hostess clearly recognized him, which wasn’t a red flag until I went to the ladies’ room before we left and heard her and one of the servers talking about ‘the sexy fireman who came in with a different woman every time.’ He didn’t deny it, so I declined date number three.”
I heaved a sigh, then told him, “I should have listened to my gut, but he pursued me for weeks, promising that this time was different, that he wasn’t seeing anyone else and that he was ready for a serious relationship.”
“Let me guess, he hadn’t really changed?”
“Nope,” I said, my voice tight with anger. “I thought he had, and maybe he did for a while, but about a month after he accused me of cheating on him, we were out to dinner one evening and a very angry blonde spotted us and stormed up to our table. She was livid that he had ghosted her after spending the night at a hotel with her a few weeks earlier.” I scoffed. “He’d told me he was covering a shift for a guy at work that night. Onceshe realized I was his fiancée and that she’d unknowingly been the side chick, she was almost as horrified as I was.”
His grip on me tightened, and he brushed his lips across my forehead in a feather-light kiss.
“I want to find that dickweasel and beat the life right out of him for hurting you.”
I snorted at his description. “It was an ugly scene. She dumped his half-eaten plate of linguine with clams in his lap. I followed that up by pouring the last of my red wine over his head before announcing to the entire restaurant that he was a cheating sack of steaming dog shit. Not my finest moment, but it was liberating.”
“Good for you, darlin’,” his voice rumbled in my ear.
I took a deep breath, and finished my sad, pathetic story.
“I moved out that night. I stayed with my best friend, Katrina, at first, but Beau wouldn’t leave me alone. He showed up on her doorstep at all hours, turned up at my favorite lunch place, and hung around outside the studio where I recorded. He couldn’t believe that I wasn’t willing to listen to his excuses, even after I’d found out that he’d been hooking up with random women on Tinder for months. Then, I found out that he and Katrina had slept together right after we got engaged.”
“Shit, that was some fucking friend.”
“Yeah,” I agreed shakily. “All of our mutual friends knew by that point, and I was so fucking humiliated. There was no way I wanted to stay in Pittsburgh then. Indianapolis was home for the first fourteen years of my life, and Uncle Bill was here, so I figured it was a good place to start over.”
“And here you are, living your best life.”
I chuckled softly, before tipping my head back to look at him. “Yep, living my best life, with my jagoff of an ex stalking me, a permanently pissed off cat who thinks he’s the king of this castle, my cranky uncle, and you as my self-appointed bodyguard.”
I hesitated before adding, “Thank you again for everything, Trick. You’re…different than I thought you were when we first met.”
“I’m almost afraid to ask what that means,” he admitted.
I shifted out of his arms and turned to face him, trying to decide just how much brutal honesty he could take.
“I thought you were a lot like Beau – a player, a huge flirt, nothing but heartache wrapped up in muscles, and charm, and sex appeal. I was sure you were trouble, especially after the first time I saw you.”
He winced and gave me a look filled with regret, and I hurried to reassure him that my opinion had changed.
“I was wrong,” I confessed. “I mean, you are a player, and an incorrigible flirt,” I chided, “but you arenothinglike Beau. You have honor, and integrity, and you know the meaning of loyalty. He most definitely did not.”
“Thank you for that, darlin’.” He dropped his gaze to his lap, then looked up at me again. “I’ve never apologized for that first night, and I should have.”
