Chapter 20 Nash
Six years ago…?
“Brooke, pick up the damn phone,” I cursed into my cell while trying her number again.
Straight to voicemail.
It was Christmas day, and despite my plan to spend the holiday at the ranch with my brothers and dad, an unsettling feeling gnawed at me since leaving Brooke two days earlier to drive down to Lonestar Junction. She’d been standoffish, aloof, and despite my pleas for her to come home with me for the holiday, she’d insisted on staying in the city to catch up on work and errands.
This was supposed to be the day of my proposal, a plan I had discussed with her father three months ago, but her lack of interest in joining me for the holiday threw a wrench into those plans. After a Christmas Eve night of contemplation, I decided to say screw it; if she wouldn’t come to the ranch, I’d go see her and propose in Houston where we lived together. It wasn’t the proposal I’d originally planned, but what mattered was the love that I thought we had between us, not a flashy proposal.
With that said, things had felt different between Brooke and I over the past two weeks. There wasn’t a single moment that I could point to where the shift had started, but it was there, nonetheless. I’d told myself it was in my head, that I was just nervous about the proposal, and she was resistant to accompany me for the holiday because of what happened last time she was at the ranch, but despite repeating this to myself, the unsettling feeling persisted.
I drove the next 60 miles with uneasiness churning in my stomach until I reached our apartment in downtown Houston. Exiting the street parking, I headed up to our place, inserted my key into the lock, and opened the door, completely unprepared for what awaited me.
On the living room floor lay Brooke, on her back, with one of my coworkers from the city, and someone we’d gone out to happy hour with, thrusting into her repeatedly as she groaned.
“What the…?”
The scene was so shocking, so far from what I’d imagined I would witness, that I had no clue how to react. Brooke’s eyes locked onto mine as she screamed, pushing Mark off her. He fell backward, naked, his bare cock waving like a red flag in the air.
No fucking condom either.
Without thinking, I stormed over to Mark, contemplating lifting him up and delivering a punch I knew would knock him out, but his bare dick and fear-filled eyes made me reconsider that approach.
In an instant, all the attraction, empathy, and feelings I had for Brooke vanished. I had never understood how someone could shift instantaneously from profound love to intense hatred for a person until that moment. When I looked over at her still on the floor, I felt nothing. It was as if a switch had flipped in my heart. Perhaps it was confirmation that the uneasiness I had been feeling recently wasn’t misplaced.
“How long?” I asked, my voice steady and calm.
She looked back at me and whispered, “Six months.”
I nodded, walked to the back where our room was, pulled out a bag, and began to pack my things. My sudden indifference towards her and Mark was so profound that I found myself not caring anymore about what I’d just witnessed. It was surprisingly eerie just how calm I felt amid encountering such a disturbing scene.
Brooke, however, was still clinging to something. She hastily put her dress back on, kicked Mark out, and ran into the back room as she grabbed my arm in an attempt to stop my packing. “It meant nothing, Nash. Please believe me that it was just about the sex.”
“Let go of me, Brooke.” I stated firmly but calmly.
“Please don’t go, Nash. What about your job with the city and the life we have here together?”
“We have nothing anymore. We’re done,” I snapped, brushing her arm off and disregarding the rest of my belongings strewn throughout our apartment before I stormed out the door.
And that was the day I realized that a woman who loved the city, would never be satisfied with a cowboy from the country.