Chapter 63
Chapter Sixty-Three
WEST
Fiddlers had been closed all week for cleanup. The fight hadn’t done much damage beyond the door and some scattered glass, but I hadn’t set foot inside since. Saturday night, I finally gave in. It was supposed to reopen Sunday, and if Blue showed up to work, I wanted the place ready.
I sat at the same table where I’d been when I first saw her.
The place looked different now. Not a dingy dive bar.
Not a liability. It had become a second home.
Four walls where I’d laughed, connected with people, and worked shoulder to shoulder with the woman my heart had chosen before my brain even realized it.
The jukebox hummed low in the corner while I tried to decide what to do next. I’d already made my apologies—to my parents, to Mr. Caldwell. The new legal team had everything handled. My people in Atlanta were keeping the office running without me. The only unfinished business was her.
My phone buzzed with a reminder about dinner with Mr. McConnell and I groaned. Not at losing the meeting, but at the memory of the lie it had been based on. I shoved the phone aside and looked around again, noticing a shard of glass glinting near the stools.
I grabbed a broom from the storage room and returned to the front to start sweeping. The music was up, my head down, and I was muttering under my breath when a sharp scream nearly made me drop everything.
My head snapped up.
Blue.
Those bright blue eyes locked on mine, wide with shock. My broom and dustpan clattered to the floor as I reached across the bar for her.
“I thought the place was empty,” she said, her hand pressed to her chest.
“Sorry.” My voice was rough. “Didn’t hear you come in.”
She didn’t back away when I reached for her. She let me take her hand, and I held it tight across the bar.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Tuffy told me you were reopening tomorrow. I thought tonight would be a good chance to pick up a few things.” She hesitated. “I picked up the pillows. They’re in the office.”
I nodded, swallowing down the relief of her being there at all. “I was just sitting here. Thinking.”
“It looked like you were sweeping.”
“Yeah. Some glass left over.” I bent, gathering the pieces again, embarrassed at how my hands shook. She surprised me by coming around the bar, holding the dustpan steady at my feet.
She glanced up at me from her crouch, and for a second I felt that same rush I felt when she told me she wanted me to feel human. She must have known where my thoughts went because she stood up quickly and emptied the dustpan into the trash.
“You’re not coming back tomorrow?” I asked casually.
“This place isn’t mine,” she said quietly. “I told you I didn’t want it.”
“You were upset. And rightfully so. You overheard the only person that knew the truth about our deal and had every reason to believe the bullshit coming from his mouth. But he was just spouting things he believed would make me happy.”
“I went there to ask why you left. Miles said your family knew everything from the beginning, and then I heard your lawyer bragging about what an amazing liar you’d been.”
“I let you walk away out of my office,” I admitted, “because I didn’t want you to see me put my fists through him.”
“You hit your lawyer?”
“My ex lawyer,” I corrected. “Because none of what he said was true. Not one word of it.”
Her voice trembled. “Did you know about my sister?”
“No.” The word was sharp, desperate. I wrapped my hand gently around the back of her neck, holding her still so she could see the truth in my eyes.
“The second I saw that picture, that was the second I pieced it together. I panicked. I’m sorry I walked away and left you confused but when you told me she was in North Dakota, I couldn’t breathe.
That was where those random calls had been coming from on my phone and I had to get out. ”
“It’s fine,” she said, waving it off. “You ended things right before that anyway. You don’t owe me anything.”
“I ended things because I couldn’t stand another second of us pretending.
” My thumb stroked her pulse at her throat, quick and unsteady.
“That night, I had planned to take you home and then beg you to start over with me. Something real. Something fresh. I wasn’t going to wait until after the McConnell meeting because that didn’t matter to me as much as making you mine did. ”
Her breath hitched. Our eyes stayed locked.
“So what was your plan?” she whispered. “West Brooks always has a plan.”
I huffed a laugh, stepping back, my hands spread wide. “This is as far as I’ve gotten. Being here. Trying to balance the man I am with the man I want to be, with the man you need me to be. I couldn’t ask for your forgiveness until I knew I could forgive myself.”
She shook her head, a tiny smile pulling at her lips. “It doesn’t sound like there’s anything to forgive. Leave it to you to try and carry guilt for things you couldn’t control.”
I almost kissed her right then. Almost. But there was one last thing.
“I didn’t get your sister pregnant.” My voice was steady, my hand tightening at her waist. “But I did have my new lawyer set her up under the condition that she leaves you alone. Whatever it takes.”
“You shouldn’t have done that,” she whispered. “She’ll just want more. She always wants more. You don’t owe her anything.”
“Trust me, she won’t want more. I made sure of it.
And I didn’t just do it for you. I did it for me.
A peace offering with my past. Brittany’s a piece of work, but she’s lived in my nightmares, cast as the villain in a story she never actually controlled.
She didn’t ask to be part of my mess any more than I asked to be part of hers.
And if you and I are in the business of anything, Blue, it’s forgiving the things we can’t place blame for. Right?”
Blue’s eyes softened and she leaned in, her forehead brushing mine. “Right.”
“I made you something,” I whispered.
Her eyes widened as I pulled back, ducking into the office. When I returned with the box in my hands, her confused expression made me laugh. And God, it was worth everything.