Chapter 40 Stop Lying
Stop Lying
Max
Walking into Fiona’s apartment this time feels vastly different. Before, I was trying to figure out why she was with another man. Now…now she’s going to admit she’s mine.
That’s a heady feeling.
“I’ll be right back.” Fiona heads down the hallway to grab the basket she uses for medical supplies.
That basket gives me really bad vibes. She’s way too comfortable with wound care. Most people have a few bandages and some ointment. They don’t have a twenty-pound basket full of enough wraps for someone who has wounds across their entire body.
We’re going to have to have a conversation about that very soon.
But first we’ll make it official, date for six months, get engaged—a wedding can take six months to a year to plan.
That won’t work. There’s no way I’m waiting for a year to marry Fiona.
We’ll date for three months, and Mom and Nonna can figure out how to get the wedding planned in two months.
You can make anything happen with enough money thrown at it.
Fiona walks out and smiles at me.
Maybe we should elope.
Nonna might kill me if we did that, but a short engagement is all she gets. Or maybe we do it like Vex and Dahlia—get married spontaneously at a family event and then have a huge wedding later.
I like that idea.
Dash…I need to make arrangements for his adoption right away before they try giving him to another family.
“You need to be more careful with these.” Fiona lifts one of my hands into hers, carefully unwinding the bandages wrapped around it. “If you broke them, it would make coding pretty hard.”
Yeah, it would. “They’re fine. I heal fast.”
Fiona doesn’t look convinced.
Though with the amount of swelling and bruising, I shouldn’t be either.
You’re wasting a prime opportunity to get things settled. “Fiona, we need to talk.”
“About what?” She doesn’t look up from gently dabbing my knuckles.
“How about we talk about you and Canyon dating?”
Her hand shakes. “Um…there’s nothing to…um…talk about.”
Yeah right. The question is, why aren’t you being honest about him? “Really? Because I can see a lot of things that need to be addressed. Like, why do you cringe every time he touches you?”
The trembling gets worse. “I don’t like being touched,” she blurts out.
“It doesn’t seem like you mind it very much right now.
” I reach over and set my other hand on hers, stopping her from treating my wounds.
“Matter of fact, it doesn’t seem like you mind it very much at all when I do it, but you cringe back every time that boyfriend of yours so much as touches your arm. Care to explain that?”
She licks her lips and pulls back. “Um.”
“Then there’s the fact that I almost kissed you the other day, and you didn’t pull away from me. You aren’t the type of woman to kiss two guys.” Did she ever kiss Canyon? My gut says all of this was a sham.
“You don’t know what type of person I am.” Fiona stands up and moves away from the couch.
“I know exactly who you are.”
She shakes her head wildly. “No. No, you don’t. No one does.”
It’s tempting to ask her to explain what she means, but we need to move past this silliness before we can get anywhere. “I see who you are every day. I see your kind heart. I see your patience with all those kids. I see you, Fiona Shaw.”
She backs away, bumping into one of the armchairs. “Why are we even talking about this? I’m dating Canyon.”
“No, you aren’t.” I stand up.
“Yes…Yes, I am.”
“Oh really.” I take a step towards her. “Then why didn’t Canyon go after you today?”
Her eyes widen, and she takes a step back, almost stumbling as she skirts around the chair. “He probably didn’t see me.”
“Canyon saw you.”
“He did?” she squeaks.
“Oh yeah.”
“I…um told you before that he knows I can take care of myself.”
“You did when you melted into my arms.”
Her mouth falls open.
“Can you explain that to me?”
She shakes her head as I take a step forward.
“But the part that I really can’t understand is, why he told me what direction you were heading in and then went back into the bakery to let me take care of you?”
A sigh like she just made speaks volumes. “Canyon thinks I like you.”
It seems Canyon isn’t a dumb man, even though I still hate the sight of him a little bit. “Canyon’s a smart man.”
“He thinks that I’m afraid to tell you I like you, so I’m using him as a shield.”
If Fiona didn’t look about ready to jump out of her skin, I would laugh. “Your shield has a few holes in it.” Though that was almost literally true.
Her gaze drops to the floor. “I know.”
“Why don’t I tell you a few things first? Then you can decide if you’re brave enough to answer my questions without lying.”
“I haven’t—”
“Don’t.”
Her mouth snaps shut. She backs up until she runs into the bookcase.
Perfect. I step in front of her, placing my hands on the shelves on either side of her, not so close that we’re touching, but close enough that she can’t run or find any other excuse or distraction.
“The first time I saw you, back when we were teenagers, I scared you, but you scared me more. You terrified me enough that I ran and hid from you for sixteen years. Because I knew in that brief moment that you were a woman that I could love. Maybe I even knew that I loved you, but my grief was too fresh, too raw to let my brain acknowledge it.”
She shakes her head. “You couldn’t have—”
“My dad knew the moment he saw my mother that they were forever. My grandfather knew when he met my grandmother, and they were both about our age back then. When I tell you I knew then, I mean it.”
“You’re like him.”
Who?
“You’re just like him. You don’t want to play games. You don’t just want to marry me. You want to spend more than forever with me.”
Who. Else. Wants. To. Marry. You? My fingers clench so tight I’m afraid of breaking the shelves.
Calm.
You need to be calm.
And rational.
Find out his name.
Kill him.
Then get back to dating Fiona.
Take a deep breath.
In…and out.
Maximus Rage…the homicidal part of me, still wants control.
In…and out.
You can handle this. Fiona is clearly into you and not this guy. “Who wants to marry you?” There, that sounded like a reasonable facsimile of calm and rational.
“No, I was talking about Hope’s boyfriend.”
“WHAT?”