Page 60 of Fake It Till You Make It

Impossible. Illogical. Then he heard her voice. Blood thundered in his ears before hell froze in his veins. Irrefutable. Cara had returned to their home. No. Never that. She had invaded his house. He was considering the likelihood that he could be addicted to Amarie after one kiss. The mention of Cara yanked him from starstruck to thunderstruck.

“Give her the phone,” he snapped, biting off the curse clamoring in his head to break free.

He heard some rustling, then—

“Eli, honey.”

The one voice he never wished to hear again.

“Cara, I’m not your honey. What are you doing in my house?”

“Please don’t be upset. I have nowhere else to go,” she sniffled.

He imagined her soft doe eyes, red-rimmed from crying. Black mascara, because she’d never be seen without her makeup, would streak down her pale cheeks.

“That was never your home. Or mine.”

“Eli, why are you being so mean to me. I ran into a hiccup—”

“Keep my dog’s name out of your mouth.”

“Oh,” she sighed, “you still have our dog.”

“He was never our dog. He came after you left.”

“Okay,” she drawled. “I can see you’re still your same old grumpy self.”

“Cara, what is it that you want?”

“I need to stay in the house for a few months. Nine at the most, until I can get my life together.”

“Nope.” His response struck his own ears like a bullet,tearing through any sympathy he would feel for anyone else in Cara’s predicament. “It’s on the market. It will stay on the market until it’s sold.”

“Eli,” she whined. In the past, he would’ve softened like fresh apple butter on warm toast. Not anymore. “I don’t have anywhere to go.”

“Not my problem. You stole my savings knowing my father bankrolled it, liquidated my retirement account. Spend that.”

“It’s gone,” she sobbed. “Seriously, how many times are you going throw that in my face? You were owed that money.”

Eli’s fury erupted. “Don’t ever say that again.”

“Fine, I’ll keep your family secret. But the truth of it, whether you want to admit it, is we were married. Which made me family. The judge sided with me, remember? As your wife I had every right to that money.”

“My father—” He swallowed. “It was a gift from father to son.” A gift he had foolishly squandered on an ugly house and an even uglier divorce.

“Not really… and it’s gone. Your father would’ve moved on by now,” she retorted.

Eli sobered.

“And so is our marriage. I’ll give you until the morning to get out of my house. If you’re there tomorrow, the police will escort you off my property.” He rarely lost control. And Cara… everything about her was reckless. Loving her had led him down the same destructive path. Fault lay with him for trusting her with information he’d never shared with his family. His father had taken the family’s history with the Pendletons, the money situation to his grave. Eli should’ve done the same.

“Eli,” she whispered, “where would you have me go?”

“Cara,” he sighed, “you are no longer my responsibility.”

“You didn’t feel that way a few months ago. You made a promise to always provide for me.”

“As your husband. As a man who loved you. I’m neither of those anymore.”