“Save it, brother. I don’t have any say in what goes on with the employees out here, and, frankly, I don’t want to listen to it right now,” I said and headed back to Ember’s office to return the spare key.
I had just closed Ember’s desk drawer when I heard a startled gasp. My head shot up, and I came face to face with Macy, a red-faced, bleary-eyed Macy.
“I didn’t know anyone was here,” I blurted dumbly.
She sucked in a shaky breath, “I was just leaving.”
We stood there, staring at each other in silence for several uncomfortable beats before my conscience got the better of me. “Is everything okay?”
“Of course,” she replied and waved a hand at her face. “Allergies.”
“Macy,” I drawled. “That’s bullshit, and you know it. What’s really going on?”
“It doesn’t matter,” she snapped, repeating the last words I’d said to her.
I pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed. “Yeah, I guess I deserve that. Look, I’m sorry, okay?”
She scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, okay.”
With her purse slung over her shoulder, she moved toward the door, but I stepped in front of her, effectively blocking the only exit.
“What are you doing, Aaron?” Hell if I knew what I was doing.
“Let me explain,” I said softly. “About the other night.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she repeated.
I ignored her jab and continued, “You’ve always had a way of making me lose my head. I thought you had a date or something, and I guess I was jealous. I had no right to react the way I did, and I’m sorry.”
She nodded and sniffed. “I didn’t have a date. I was wearing the lingerie for me. Because I already felt like shit, and you made me feel worse. I thought dressing up in pretty things might make me feel better,” she confessed. The two tears that streaked down her pink cheeks were my undoing.
Closing the distance between us, I pulled her into my arms and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. With my cheek resting against her hair, I told her, “I’m sorry for hurting you.”
As soon as the words left my mouth, I felt her body shake against mine, followed by a muffled sob. I held her while she cried against my chest. It was then I realized every ounce of sass she’d given me had been a façade. She wasn’t the same feisty, smart-mouthed firecracker she once was. No, the Macy in my arms had lost all confidence in herself, and I’d done nothing but further drive that point home since she’d been back.
After a few minutes, I softly said, “Macy, look at me.” She shook her head against my chest. “Come on, Mace, give me your eyes.”
“No, Aaron. I’m sure I look awful right now,” she mumbled.
“Mace, I took care of you when you had the flu and again when you had that hellacious stomach virus. Trust me; you will never look worse than you did when you were sitting on the toilet and puking at the same time.”
She gasped in outrage and slapped my chest, pushing herself back and glaring at me. “You swore you didn’t see any of that!”
I chuckled as I cupped her face and wiped the remaining tears away with my thumbs. “I didn’t, but I heard you, and I saw you when you came out of the bathroom. Now, how about you let me take you out for dinner? You can tell me all about your ex-husband, and I can decide if I need to go kill him or not after I have a few words with your father,” I said, trying to lighten the mood.
Surprisingly, she agreed but wanted to go back to her apartment to change clothes and freshen up first. While she did that, I turned off everything and locked up the office building.
When she returned, I was waiting for her beside my bike. She eyed it warily before confessing, “I’ve never ridden on a motorcycle.”
I grinned. “Well, I’m popping that cherry. Let’s go,” I ordered and slapped her firm little ass. She climbed on the bike, and I took her to the restaurant where Dash and Ember had their rehearsal dinner. After placing our order, I leaned back in my chair and locked eyes with her. “Tell me about your ex.”
She shifted in her seat and visibly swallowed. “There’s not much to tell. I met Robert when I was in college. I dropped out of school, married him, and moved to Texas. I was young and stupid and signed a prenuptial agreement without reading it. So, when I caught him cheating last year and filed for divorce, I didn’t realize my actions would result in me losing my rights to anything acquired during our marriage or any type of monetary settlement.”
“I thought prenuptial agreements usually protected the innocent party in the marriage.”
She shook her head. “I used to think the same thing, but, no, they protect whoever has the most money or the most to lose. I knew I wasn’t after his money, so I didn’t read it like I should have. He had a clause in there saying I wouldn’t get anything other than my personal belongings and whatever vehicle I was using as my daily transportation at the time if I initiated divorce proceedings for any reason whatsoever.”
She took a large sip of her wine and continued, “The day our divorce was finalized, I packed my personal belongings under the supervision of his security team while he married his overly plasticized living fuck doll, the fucking pig.”