Page 108 of Without a Hitch
He pats my head and gives me a squeeze. “In my experience, Tilly, men like that always find their way home. Just give him time.” Pulling out of my embrace, he gives me a serious once-over. “And if he doesn’t, I’ll kick his ass.”
I snort before I can catch myself. “Th-Thanks, Monty,” I manage through a hiccup.
“You got it, girly. Now get upstairs. Your girls are waiting for you.”
With a fortifying breath, I move on autopilot to the elevator. When I’m standing outside our door, I can hear all three of my roommates pissed off at Lochlan. A sentinel army ready to protect me at all costs, but hearing their disparaging account of Lochlan hurts my heart. He’s not a bad man. He’s a broken one. That makes this so much more difficult.
I know they’ll have left the door unlocked for me, so I turn the knob and step inside. The second I cross the threshold, three sets of eyes find mine. As I drop my bags to the floor, the tears pour free.
Delaney reaches me first and guides me to the sofa.
“I’m going to kill him,” Eli swears.
“Is she home?” I hear Mable yell from the floorboards. “That son of a fiddler didn’t tell me. Monty! Monty,” she yells again before her voice fades off, no doubt giving Monty a piece of her mind.
“Are you okay?” Hadley asks, curling up next to me on the sofa.
“I—I’m fine,” I whine, but my head shakes no. A sure sign my head and my heart are at odds.
“What did he do?” Eli snarls.
“Nothing he didn’t warn me would happen. He—we just want different things.” I’m not sure if they can understand me through my broken sobs, but they all surround me. I feel them even if I can’t bear to meet their worried gazes.
“You’re home early,” Delaney points out gently. “Is he not going to follow through with your deal?”
Now my heart bleeds openly. “No, he is. He already has. He must have started the second I walked out the door.”
“Started what?”
“Work. He didn’t come after me. He didn’t even give me a second thought. He couldn’t have.” I choke on the painful words. “While I was crying across the country, he was—working. I… As soon as I landed, I got an email from someone named Nate that I needed to prepare for an onslaught of unhappy brides starting in August because their weddings would be turned over to me in a new venue they hadn’t chosen. Lochlan’s opened not just the hotels we agreed on, but all of them.”
“It’s the least the asshole can do.” Eli harrumphs.
“Please, Eli. That doesn’t help. He isn’t a bad guy. He’s…” I can’t finish the sentence. Everything hurts.
“You’re still defending him?” Hadley asks patiently.
“He didn’t do anything wrong, Hades. He told me from the very beginning what he was capable of. I told him what would happen if I spent time with him, and it did. He never changed our rules. I did.”
“You fell in love with him in two weeks?” Eli asks skeptically.
I cast a solemn expression her way. “E, if I’m honest, I think I caught feelings the second time I met him. If I’m truly being honest with myself, I knew he was dangerous after our first encounter because I already felt something I shouldn’t. He knows what he can and can’t give. I fell for him anyway,” I cry. “And…it hurts. It hurts so bad because when his sun shines on me, I feel like I can conquer the world. Then he reiterated his truth, and it was like a dark cloud had drowned out the sun. I feel like I’ll never be warm again. He made me feel like I mattered. Like he saw me in a room full of sparkling diamonds. He made me feel special.”
“Oh, honey. You are special,” Mable rasps behind us, causing us to jump at the sound.
“Jesus, Mable. You scared the shit out of us.” Eli scolds, but is already moving to assist Mable with whatever she has in her hands. “What did you bring?”
“Breakup food. Isn’t that what you girls do? Y’all were so busy cursing out that boy I didn’t hear anyone place an order. So I did it. Ice cream too.” She leans down and wraps a bony arm around my shoulders. “You’re gonna be just fine, Titty. Just fine.”
Meow.
“What was that?” Hadley asks, jumping off the couch.
“Oh, Pussy just followed me up. Nothing to get yourself all riled up over.”
“Who?” Eli asks.
Mable points to a feral-looking feline prancing into our living room with its tail raised like royalty. “She just kept following me home from Fiddle the Bean, so I decided to keep her.”
