Page 31

My skin flushes red-hot. Butterflies swarm my stomach, heavy and velvety.

My lips part. His eyes chase the tip of my tongue as I wet them.

His thumb strokes my foot, digging deep enough to sooth the ache on the rise.

I bite back another moan, blurting, “I saw Laura today.”

I wasn’t going to tell him. I don’t know why that came out.

His eyes clear of the fog that swarmed the green, but his hands don’t stop working my foot. “Oh?”

“She came into Foster’s Gear. She bought new boots.”

I don’t know why I told him that, either.

“Ah.”

Tate isn’t usually so wordless. I don’t like it. My belly feels knotted with ugly emotions.

We haven’t talked about Laura since…

“What happened with her?”

His eyes connect with mine as he continues to rub my aching feet. “I broke things off with her.”

“Why?”

He doesn’t hesitate, just says, “It wasn’t right.”

“What wasn’t right? She was perfect.”

“She was.”

Ouch. I don’t expect those words to pinch quite like they do.

God, they do, though.

I don’t have a right to feel like this…

My voice sounds so much smaller than I intend when I whisper, “Then why wasn’t it right?”

Tate doesn’t look at me. He looks into me, seeing beneath the mask I wear as I fear he’s always seen beneath my masks. He says matter of fact, “She wasn’t you.”

Air leaves my lungs in one quick whoosh. The velvety wings of the butterflies that swarm my belly stroke the base of my brutalized heart, imprinting on an organ I feared would forever belong to just one man. Now…now I fear it may belong to two.

Why is life so complicated?

“When did you break things off?”

“Why?”

“I need to know.” I need to know if it was after I told him about the baby. I need to know if I did this to them. If I’m the reason for the bitter hurt in Laura’s eyes.

“I broke it off the morning I found out you were pregnant. Before I found out you were pregnant.” His hands move from one foot to the other. “I broke it off because she wanted to move in and start something real and I—” He cuts off to roll his lips. “I didn’t.”

“But you let me move in.”

“Like I said, you’re you.”