Page 37 of Heartbroken Husband
“I’m not in denial, and I won’t get you sick,” I said. “I just need this to be done.”
Then I coughed. It was just once, but he didn’t miss that either. “Well, that’s promising.”
“Don’t,” I said. “It’s nothing. I’m just on edge.”
“Nah. You’ve been spending time with Adeline’s children and?—”
“And they’re healthy. Maybe you were right earlier and it’s just stress.”
“They’re children,” he argued lightly, like that should explain everything. “They’re never healthy. They’re just incubating.”
I rubbed a hand over my jaw. “I’m not sick. I don’t get sick. I can’t even remember the last time I had to go the doctor.”
He shrugged. “Times change.”
I sighed. “Can we just not do this right now?”
“Sure,” he said easily. “Let’s talk about your impending arranged marriage instead.”
I gave him a look that should’ve said, very clearly, that I didn’t want to talk about that either, but he slid his forearms onto the table and gave me his full attention. “I don’t understand why Alex wanted her to come sign here. Do you think that’s her? Do you think she’s coming?”
He jerked his head toward the door, like I’d needed him to clarify what he’d meant. I shrugged one of my shoulders, the best I could do to appear nonchalant when I definitely didn’t feel it.
“I don’t know who it is, but we’ll know soon enough if it’s her,” I said, though he hadn’t even looked at me before he’d left, which seemed to indicate that it hadn’t been about my marriage.
The fact that he’d wanted her to come sign the papers at W&S though,thatwas all about our marriage. They wanted to be able to move forward with our match, and if he saw her sign the papers with his own two eyes, that meant he could instruct our lawyers to start finalizing the paperwork for our engagement.
I didn’t say any of that out loud, though. Nate knew it too, and judging by the fact that he was still leaning forward with his elbows on the table, he wasn’t going to drop it until Alex came back and we found out what that call had been about.
“How are you doing with everything?” he asked, his voice surprisingly gentle.
It took me aback for a second before I finally managed to respond. “I’m fine.”
He sighed. “Funny, that’s what I used to say too and I definitely wasn’t fine.”
“And yet, you kept insisting you were.”
“Only because it was a complicated situation.”
“Like this isn’t.” I scoffed, but the fact of the matter was that Nate knew more than most about what had happened with Adeline back in the day.
Honestly, he and Will had kept me from falling apart completely. Nate had even been the one who’d gotten me into running to begin with, but even then, I doubted either of them really knew what I’d gone through.
Neither of them had ever been in love when it’d happened, and when they had finally fallen, they’d both married those women. As much as I appreciated everything they’d done for me, there was just no way he’d be able to understand what I was going through right now either.
“Look, I know it’s complicated,” he said, tilting his head in that annoyingly perceptive way he had. “I just need to know how much we should be worrying about you.”
“It’s notmeyou need to worry about at all.” That much, at least, was true. “Adeline is my only concern and she should be yours too. I don’t want her feeling like she’s being forced into another marriage. She’s been there, done that, and I’m not interested in being part of her having to go through it again.”
“Is that why you’re being so weird around her?” he asked after a beat. “You think she’s feeling like you’re forcing her into this?”
I glared at him. “I’m not being weird.”
“You are,” he said firmly. “Just answer the question, Zach. I can’t protect either of you if I don’t know what’s really going on.”
What was really going on was that I’d been in love with this girl since I was sixteen and nothing had really changed except for an almost overwhelming sense of heartbreak and guilt, but I couldn’t bring myself to admit that.
“I’m just not sure how to move forward with her,” I said finally, admitting the next best thing. “Given our history, I don’t know what we’re supposed to be to each other now.”
