26. Will
Chapter twenty-six
Will
“ W hy are you wearing my clothes?” I came out of the shower to find Roz sitting on my couch, scrolling through something on her phone.
Her eyes narrowed. “You may have caught most of the spill, but that doesn’t mean the spots on my dress were going to wash themselves out. I found these in the drawer in your room. I’ll have them cleaned and sent back to you later this week.” She gestured to where her soaked dress hung over a barstool. “I rubbed out most of the stains in the sink, but you need to have club soda around the house for stuff like this.”
My hackles rose at the way Rosalyn thought she could still boss me around. And dig in my dresser drawers, apparently. “I’ll keep it in mind.”
“Are you going to call now?”
“Actually, Roz, I’ve been thinking about it, and I don’t think I should call Wicklein for you.”
“The fuck! Why not?”
“Because it’s not right that I keep jumping in with you, or with Wallingford. I want to make a clean break from the company. I need to.”
She made a derisive noise. “You’re never going to break completely, William. That’s ridiculous. It’s your parents’ company.”
“I realize that. But I shouldn’t be having contact with clients. I can draw that line. You should call Wicklein. I’m sure you can use all your charm to keep him in your portfolio yourself.”
“My charm?” She raised an eyebrow.
“Fine then. Your business acumen.” I sat down across from her. “At the end of the day, if he won’t accept you as his rep, I can’t keep coming in to make him stay. No matter how lucrative his account is. If he’s going to be this way, eventually you’re going to have to say, ‘fuck him.’”
“Easy for you to say. You don’t have skin in the game anymore. Not really.”
“Trust me. It hasn’t been easy to break away from the company.”
She snorted. “Trust you? Yeah, I’ll get right on that.”
I hoped Rosalyn grasped my underlying point—that I didn’t want a reason for us to be in each other’s lives anymore. We weren’t enemies, but we also weren’t friends. I wouldn’t mind getting to a place where we waved at parties or made small talk at fundraising events. But I didn’t want to create intentional opportunities for contact. I was serious about getting things right with Maureen. And that meant eliminating complications that might give her a reason not to be with me.
I couldn’t undo the past, but I’d committed to taking the reins of my life fully in hand, making choices that best served my own goals.
First up, setting firmer boundaries with my ex.
Rosalyn had knocked on my door unexpectedly this morning, carrying a tray with two coffees. Her excuse was to make sure I followed through on my promise to call Wicklein today. She sniffed at the size of my apartment and gave me stink-eye about wearing pajamas so close to noon. When I’d asked her to please call or text before showing up, she lost her shit, calling me an asshole and slamming the drinks down on the counter. One of them fell out of the tray and spilled twenty ounces of molten brown lava into my lap. The other bounced twice before tipping sideways, spraying her dress and somehow launching a stream of coffee into her tightly coiled hair.
“Jesus Christ!” I’d screamed and jumped up, the hot liquid perilously close to my package. Racing to my bathroom, I shed my soaked pants and henley, getting into the shower to spray my lower half with cool water and soap off the sticky mess.
I came out to discover Roz had pilfered clothes from my room. She’d also taken her hair down and run water through the section doused by her latte.
And now, she was back to telling me off because I didn’t want to call Wicklein for her.
“You know, you’re being a real dick, William. You could just do this for me.”
“I could, but I’m not going to. I’m happy to go over any of the notes I left you on his account, though, if you want to talk strategy. But that’s a onetime offer.”
“Oh, gee, fuck you very much for your fucking scraps of help.” She stood. “You can save it. Thanks for nothing.”
“Rosalyn, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry my decision makes you angry. I promise I’m not doing it to piss you off.”
She scoffed. “Could have fooled me.” Her eyes darted around and landed on the plastic Christmas tree in the corner. “I guess you’re really doing this, huh? This is you? Mr. Roper. Handling your tenants. Fixing squeaky floorboards. Wasting your MBA.”
I sighed. “I’m sorry again, Roz. It doesn’t need to be ugly.”
She continued like she hadn’t heard me. “When you were in the shower, one of them came by, and I thought, ‘This is William’s life now—sorry, Will —He’s gone from managing millions of dollars to being on call when someone’s toilet needs plunging.’” She shook her head.
“If you knew me before my accident, you might understand better.” I stretched out my scarred fingers exaggeratedly, anticipating her averted gaze. She didn’t disappoint me.
“Well, if anything, I believe I’ve come around to your way of thinking,” she said, crooking one hand against her hip. “It’s a good thing we didn’t get married.”
I hmphed. Then my brain caught up to what she’d said. “Did you say someone came by earlier when I was in the shower? A clogged toilet?”
“Yeah. Not specifically about the toilet. She said she’d catch you later. Didn’t want to leave a message.”
A low pit formed in my stomach. “What did she look like?”
Rosalyn frowned. “Good-looking. About our age. Reddish hair, but the roots were growing out.”
Shit! “Rosalyn, you need to leave right now.”
“What?”
“Landlord tenant emergency.”
She sputtered as I grabbed her wet dress and shoved it in her hands, along with her purse, pushing her gently but firmly toward the door. “Goodbye, Roz. I’m confident you can figure it out with Wicklein.”
“Thanks for nothing, William.” Exhaling, she gathered her things with dignity and walked into the hall. Turning around, she shot me an appraising look that morphed into an expression of grudging respect. “When did you get a backbone?”
“The minute I realized what not having one would cost me.”
I raced down the hall to Bren and Chase’s apartment, knocking sharply.
Maureen opened the door, stepping back to invite me in. “I figured you’d show up soon enough.”
If I’d had any doubt she recognized the woman in my apartment as the woman she’d met five years ago, the look on her face quickly resolved it.
“That wasn’t what it looked like,” I rushed out. “Rosalyn came by with no warning, then she spilled scalding coffee in my lap, and since I wanted to keep my testicles intact, I had to jump in the shower.”
Maureen shut the door behind me with a soft click. “Let me guess—while you were in the shower rinsing off, she helped herself to spare clothes from your room.”
I huffed. “Yeah. I told her it was an overstep, but she’s a bit of a bulldozer. She came by to try to get me to do something for the business—for Wallingford—and got pissed when I told her no.”
Maureen appeared thoughtful. “I figured it was something like that.”
“You did?”
“I’m not dense, Will. We were halfway to your bedroom last night. I know you didn’t suddenly decide to chuck it all to invite your ex-fiancée over for a quickie.”
I let out a relieved breath. “God. I panicked for a moment that this would be history repeating itself, you finding me with Rosalyn—even though this time it was completely innocent—and I’d have to go five more years without kissing you.”
I stepped forward to touch her face, but she backed away.
“The thing is, Will. It’s still history repeating itself, isn’t it?”
“What?” I dropped my hand.
“It’s still this person lurking in the background of your life, ready to spring up at any time to get between us… For Christ’s sake, Will. We haven’t been home twenty-four hours and she’s showing up at your door? Digging through your clothes? Sure, it’s not as bad as you lying to me, or me going to the hospital with alcohol poisoning, but the pattern hasn’t changed.” She folded her arms across her chest. “You’re just not ready to break away from other people’s expectations. Or set real boundaries.”
“That’s not true, Mau—” I began, but she put up her hand.
“Will, I don’t want to make it sound like I’m judging you. I’m just saying, I’ve finally reached a good place in my life where I’ve figured out who I am and what I want my future to look like. It took me a long time to let go of what I thought I wanted, of what I was doing for myself versus what other people expected.” She dropped her arms, and her voice grew soft. “It’s okay if you’re not there yet.”
I scrubbed a hand across my jaw, exhaling deeply. “I am there, Maureen.”
She shook her head. “No. I think it’s reasonable that when I’m interested in a guy, there is a zero percent chance his ex-girlfriend is going to be in his apartment—wearing his clothes—opening the door when I come over. I’m not afraid to admit that I want you, Will. You. And I get that everyone comes with baggage, but you need to deal with yours before you ask me to deal with it, too. You say that I’m important to you, that you want to be with me—”
“I do!”
“Really? Then how come you never told anyone about me?”
“That’s not fair, Maureen. I didn’t know the last week was going to happen. I didn’t know we’d have a chance to be together.”
“You didn’t fight for me five years ago.”
“And it’s the biggest regret of my life! But I couldn’t. My head was still so messed up.”
“I understand that. But what you don’t seem to realize is… You still can’t. It’s more important to you to avoid confronting your ex, or your parents for that matter, than it is to make sure I feel secure. It’s only been days since I’ve forgiven you. And that makes this thing between us”—she moved her finger back and forth between our chests—“very fragile. But you don’t seem too concerned with protecting it.”
She looked at me, and I saw she believed it. That she wasn’t a priority in my life. I needed to make her understand I would burn it all down, everything I had, just to take this chance with her.
I stepped closer, and this time, she didn’t back away. “You’re wrong, Maureen. What you said about Rosalyn, about my parents, might have been true a few weeks ago, but it’s not true now. And I’m not going to let you push me away over a misunderstanding.”
“I’m not pushing you away. I’m just being hon—”
“You are. You’re pushing so hard it’s practically a bench press. I know you’re scared. You saw Rosalyn in my apartment, and it took you right back to that hotel lobby. And you’re trying to make it mean something it doesn’t.”
“I’m not.” Her voice sounded small. I prayed that meant she was considering my words.
Leaning closer, I snaked an arm around her waist. “I’m sorry seeing Rosalyn upset you. But you already knew it wasn’t what it looked like. Your heart already knew. And I told her it could never happen again, that I wouldn’t be helping her with Wallingford and she couldn’t show up at my door anymore.” I reached up to run my fingers through her hair. “You’re my priority, Maureen. And I’m sorry I didn’t give you that five years ago. That I didn’t have it in me back then to tell everyone to fuck off so I could be with the most amazing girl I’d ever met. I’m sorry I’m half a decade late in putting you first, but that’s exactly what I’m doing.”
I moved my hand back down her neck and pressed in until our noses were just inches apart. “Whatever you need me to do, I’ll do it. I’ll tell Rosalyn I’ll never see her again. I’ll call my parents right now and tell them about the concussion. Even if it sends them into a tailspin about my choices , I’ll do it because I’m ready to do whatever it takes to be with you. You’re wrong that I’m not ready. I’m so ready to be with you. I want it more than I’ve ever wanted anything.”
She leaned against the arms I’d enveloped her with, pressing her palms to my chest. A slow gulp worked its way down her throat.
We stood surrounded by the heavy silence left in the wake of my words. A million different emotions seemed to invade her features at once, and I could only guess at the thoughts in her head.
I knew Maureen was scared. She had every right to be.
But eventually, the fear in her eyes changed to something else. Something hot and determined. Her posture eased. She slid her hands up over my shoulders and twined them behind my neck, placing a soft, exploratory kiss on my lips.
After a moment that lasted a decade, she whispered, “I believe you.”
I released a strangled breath. “Thank god.”
Her thumbs electrified the sensitive skin of my neck. She trailed her lips from my mouth to my jaw, making me shudder. “Will?”
“Mmm…?”
“Show me how much you want me.”
I froze briefly in her arms before tilting my head back to meet her eyes. “Now?”
“Now.”