“Now we can leave.”
“Okay,” he agrees, dropping his bat and then walking out the door to the main entrance still in all of his protective clothes.
“Sorry,” I tell the man at the desk. “I’ll be right back with your stuff.”
“No problem,” he replies with a grin.
Hopefully that wasn’t a lie. Who knows what Nash is thinking now? He could take off on foot and leave me in the dust.
But as soon as I push through the front glass door, I find him sitting with his back against the building, which is a relief. He’s staring out at the parking lot, his face shield lying beside him.
Heading over, I take a seat about two feet away to give him space. “I would ask if you’re okay, but I know that would be a stupid question,” I remark. “So, let’s start with how pissed off at me you are right now, on a scale of one to ten, ten being you’ll never forgive me?”
“One hundred,” he answers without missing a beat.
“Wow, that’s a big number,” I mutter, as I swallow around the sudden knot in my throat thinking about how much he must hate me. “But to be fair, there are probably a lot of things you’ve been keeping from me too.”
“None about your ex.”
“True,” I agree. Both of us sit and stare at the traffic zooming by on the road in front of us.
“He’s rich as fuck, isn’t he?” Nash eventually asks.
“Yes,” I reply since I know exactly who the ‘he’ he’s referring to is – Barry. “How did you know?”
“Lucky fucking guess.”
Wrapping my arms around my legs, I tell him, “His family has more money than they know what to do with.”
“Of course they do,” he grumbles.
“He’ll probably cheat on her too,” I assure him.
“Good.”
“She’ll always be miserable. A nanny will probably raise their kid. I think she got knocked up on purpose so he would have to marry her. The Atwaters may look the other way for affairs, but they wouldn’t tolerate a bastard in the family or a divorce, so she’s in it for life now. I wonder if his parents know about you…”
“Fuck all of them,” Nash mutters. “They can wipe their tears and asses with their cash for all I care.”
“We met when he was at fat camp,” I admit.
“You went to fat camp?” Nash asks, finally looking at me for the first time since the hotel.
“No. I was at computer camp right next door, but we all hung out around the campfires at night. I used to sneak Barry cookies, because he always whined that they didn’t get anything but fruit for dessert.”
“That’s funny,” he replies even though neither of us are even smiling. “You dated a long time?”
“Oh yeah. We dated through the end of high school and all through college. Then we moved in together, and I…well, it all fell apart.”
“He looks like a dickhead.”
“He is a dickhead,” I agree. “So is she. A gold-digging dickhead. They deserve each other.”
“I didn’t recognize her at first. It just didn’t make sense that after all these years she would be right there standing in front of me with another man and fucking pregnant.”
“Now you know why Ellie finally asked for a divorce.”
“Yeah, I figured as much,” he says with a sigh. “You two sort of look alike.”
“Sort of, but I’m just half a foot shorter, uglier and dorkier.”
“You’re not uglier,” he tells me softly. “But you are definitely smaller and dorkier.”
“Ellie was Miss Teen USA, and I didn’t even make it on the homecoming court in high school!”
“You’re a better person than her, even if you are a sneaky little bitch,” he replies. “Guess this is my own fault for asking to tag along. You did try and talk me out of it.”
“You were persistent.”
“I was. I admit it. So, I guess I’ll bring down that one hundred to a fifty on the anger scale.”
“Nice. That’s much better.” Being a fifty on a scale of ten still sounds like he’s done with me.
“Now what are we gonna do?” Nash asks.
“Whatever you want to do.”
“I’m exhausted, but I could eat something.”
“I, ah, I do have a room back at the resort if you want to crash there tonight and then leave tomorrow. We could get room service to make sure we don’t run into them again tonight.”
“Okay,” Nash agrees when he gets to his feet.
“I’ll sleep on the floor tonight.”
“That’s where dogs belong,” he says with a slight smirk on his lips. “First, I guess we need to give the demolition guy all his shit back.”
“That would probably be best.”
Chapter Seventeen
Nash
* * *
Lucy and I made it to her hotel room with our luggage without seeing anyone in the ‘wedding party’, for which I was thankful. There was food eaten, but I don’t exactly remember what I put in my mouth since my head is still in a fog.
I wasn’t prepared to do this – to see Ellie again, especially not the weekend of her fucking wedding.
In fact, I was looking forward to spending what could be my last days of freedom with Lucy more than anything before it all blew up in my face.
She’s known who I am this entire time. No fucking wonder why being with Lucy felt familiar. Not only did she know about my past with Ellie, but she’s fucking related to my ex-wife!
I’m so furious with Lucy I can’t breathe!
Or maybe I’m mostly pissed at Ellie for moving on with her life without me, as if I don’t matter, making me think she never loved me.
I’m angry at both of them, and the fat tub of lard Ellie’s marrying. The guy who hurt and betrayed Lucy. What a dick.
Thinking of how distraught I was the past few years, wondering if Ellie was coming back and what I did to deserve her abandonment, I can somewhat sympathize with Lucy and understand her motives.
There’s no doubt in my mind that Lucy had no ill-intentions when she showed up in Carolina Beach seeking me out.
And honestly, I don’t know what I would’ve done without her the last few weeks. If she hadn’t forced her way into my life, I would probably still be passed out in my apartment drunk.
Still, there’s a lot of shit to think about, and I need time to wrap my head around everything before I can forgive her. Lucy, that is. There is no forgiving Ellie.
I’m still completely zoned out, lost in my thoughts sitting in one of the room chairs when Lucy finally comes out of the bathroom after the longest shower or bath in history. She goes over to the bed and removes one of the pillows, then tosses it down on the floor. After that, she grabs a blanket from the closet and says, “Sorry about everything. Good night.”
“Night,” I mutter half-heartedly.
Only when she disappears on the other side of the bed do I realize she was serious about sleeping on the floor and didn’t realize that I was just joking.