“Crap. They’re dancing.”
An image of him and Ellie dancing under the moon at Chase and Sadie’s wedding came to him. Ellie was smiling up at him. He didn’t want her dancing with anyone but him. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
Nate walked into the crowded bar. He spotted Ellie and Spencer on the dance floor. They were in each other’s arms. He recognized the song—Aloe Blacc and LeAnn Rimes’s “I Do.” It was their song. His and Ellie’s. The last dance they’d shared that night before he got called away.
He pushed through the crowd to reach the dance floor and tapped Spencer on the shoulder. Nate didn’t ask if he could cut in, he just stood there, staring at Ellie. Her hair was down, cascading over her shoulders in long, shiny blue-black waves. He remembered how that silky mane had felt sliding between his fingers the other night. The soft sounds she’d made. The way she’d looked at him with the moon and the stars in her beautiful eyes. She looked at him the same way now.
Spencer put up his hands and walked away.
“You were dancing with him to our song,” Nate said as he took Ellie in his arms and drew her close. Closer than he should in the middle of a dance floor in Highland Falls, but he didn’t care.
“You remembered.” She smiled up at him and looped her slender arms around his neck, closing what little distance there’d been left between them.
He bent his head, bringing his mouth to her ear. “I haven’t forgotten a single moment of that night, Ellie.” He rubbed his cheek against her hair, inhaling her perfume. He loved the soft, sexy fragrance, he loved the feel of her in his arms, he loved…everything about her.
“I’m sorry about this morning. I shouldn’t have brought up me leaving right before you headed out. I should have waited until we could talk about it. Until I had a chance to explain.”
She stiffened in his arms, moving her hands to his shoulders, putting some distance between them. “To explain what? That we’d had our fun but that our little fling was over?”
“No. That’s not it. It wasn’t a fling. I…care about you.” When she went to step away from him, he framed her face with his hands. “Look at me. I’ve never felt the way I feel about you with any other woman, Ellie. Believe me, if I could give you what you want, what you deserve, I would.”
“So that’s it? You’ll leave Sunday, and I’ll never see you again?”
In his head he knew that a clean break would be the best for both of them. But he couldn’t convince his heart. There were people here that he loved, not just Ellie. And that had been his first mistake, getting involved with someone whom the people he thought of as family loved too. “You’ll see me again.”
She pressed her lips together and shook her head. “I can’t do this. Not here.” She moved away from him and hurried off the dance floor.
Nate ignored a frowning Chase and Hunter, who were waving him over to their table. He didn’t want to talk right now. He walked to the bar and ordered a beer. He didn’t want one, he just needed something to hold on to. Otherwise he might put his fist through a wall.
“Thanks,” he said to the bartender when he handed him a bottle of beer and a frosted glass. Nate leaned against the bar, nudged the glass away, and twirled the bottle between his hands, thinking about how badly he’d messed up with Ellie. He wanted to make it right, but he didn’t know how.
Spencer moved in beside him and ordered a beer. Nate slowly turned his head, giving the actor a get out of my space or you’ll regret it look. He wanted nothing more than to rip the guy’s head from his shoulders. Obviously, Spencer wasn’t as good at reading body language as Ellie claimed because he didn’t move.
“I don’t want to fight with you,” Spencer said.
Nate snorted. “I’d like to see you try.”
“I wasn’t talking about a physical fight. I’m not stupid.” He picked at the label on the beer bottle, then glanced at Nate. “Maybe I am. You’ll probably beat the crap out of me when I say what I have to say.”
With his beer bottle, Nate gestured for him to go ahead at the same time as he glanced around the room. He spotted a clear path to the exit door nearest the river that flowed beside the brewery. If Spencer confessed that he was still in love with Ellie and wanted her back, Nate was going to haul the guy through that door and toss him into the river.
“I played a police detective on my last series. I actually won an Emmy for the role.”
Nate rolled his eyes. Of course all the guy wanted to talk about was himself.
Spencer sat there smiling for a minute as if recalling the memory of accepting his award. Then he said, “I take my roles seriously. I went on a few ride-alongs, spent a lot of time with our men and women in blue. I have a lot of respect for what they do, for what you do. But I also saw the kind of stress that goes with the job and what it does to their families, the people that they love.” He picked at the label on his beer bottle again. Then he cleared his throat. “I don’t want to see Ellie hurt. You guys won’t work. You’re not good for her, Nate.”
Nate saluted him with his beer bottle. “That’s the first intelligent thing you’ve said since I met you.”
Spencer blew out a breath and went to clink his beer bottle against Nate’s. “Thank God. I seriously thought you were going to beat the crap out of me.”
Nate smacked his beer bottle against Spencer’s, beer splashing onto the bar and the actor’s white shirt. “You’re no good for her either, so stay the hell away from her.”
Spencer nodded, dabbing at the damp stain with a napkin. “I know, and you have no idea how much I regret what I did to her. I loved her.” He glanced at Nate and held up his hand. “Don’t punch me, but I still do. I’d do anything to get her back, but she’s made it clear she’s not interested.”
“So why’d you cheat on her?”
“I was scared. Stupid, right? I had the most beautiful, incredible woman willing to marry me, and I threw it all away because I started having doubts. I was on location for six weeks in Paris without her. I’d go out with the crew and my costars after the day’s shoot. Out for dinner or to a nightclub just to cut loose. It was fun, a lot of fun. Those first few weeks, I made sure I went back to the hotel early to avoid the temptation, and trust me, there was a lot of temptation. But the longer I was away from Ellie, the harder it became. I started feeling like I was missing out, like maybe I wasn’t ready to settle down and lose my freedom.” He shook his head. “This past year, since Ellie and I broke up, I’ve taken advantage of my freedom, and I can tell you, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.” He went on to tell Nate everything he missed about Ellie, all the moments in their relationship that meant the most to him, that he couldn’t get out of his head—every single one in excruciating detail.
And Nate didn’t tell him to shut up or walk away, or toss him in the river like he wanted to. He just sat there listening in silence while a battle raged on inside him. Maybe he’d been wrong about Spencer. Maybe Spencer was the right man for Ellie after all.
Chapter Twenty-One