Chapter 28
ANGEL
Minutes passed with no answer.
I kept hitting the surface of the door and calling her name.
‘Roxy!’
My voice almost went hoarse, but I refused to let up.
The door swung open after what seemed like an eternity.
Roxy stood under the porch light, clad in cotton shorts, a baggy tee, and thick wool socks.
Fuckin’ breathtaking.
My chest heaved, a ragged gasp catching in my throat at the sight of her.
My legs gave out.
I collapsed onto my knees on the wet stoop.
I rocked back on my heels, the storm raging behind me while the driving rain battered my back.
Our eyes locked and she stared at me, unmoved, her face cold and unyielding.
‘What are you doing here, Angel?’ she whispered. ‘How did you find me?’
She pursed her lips, but before I got a chance to answer, she scoffed.
‘Wait, let me guess, you used your money to pay an investigator.’
I twisted my mouth, not refuting her deduction.
‘I had to see you.’
‘I asked you expressly to leave me alone.’
‘I had to come,’ I muttered, staring up at her, heart aching, head whirling at her proximity. ‘I need to explain to you what happened and apologize for fucking up.’
She eyed me for a beat. ‘Talk, then.’
I took a breath in, my heart thundering.
‘I love you, Roxy,’ I rasped. ‘I’ve had weeks to think through everything. You’re the one I love, not Evangeline.’
Roxy blinked.
Then she crossed her arms, her gaze tracking the lightning arcing in the sky behind me.
Seconds later, thunder roared overhead, ominous and dire.
‘So what were you doing hiding her in Nashville, then?’
I opened my mouth, but she kept going.
‘Taking her texts and disappearing during the night. With her?’
‘She ran away from her lover, some dealer guy called Michael,’ I explained, desperate for her to see the facts. ‘He was threatening her life.’
I wiped rain from my eyes.
‘I rented a townhouse for her and got her security. That’s all it was, and yes, I was avoiding you out of guilt, but I hardly spent time with her. I was genuinely working at the city studio most nights.’
‘Regardless, you hid her return from me,’ Roxy countered, her eyes narrowing. ‘When I asked who the messages were coming from, you told me it was a matter you were working on.’
She leaned against the jamb.
‘You gave me the impression it was band related. In essence, you lied to me, Angel.’
The accusation hung between us.
‘How can I trust you now?’ she asked. ‘When it seems Evangeline still has a hold over your heart.’
‘She doesn’t,’ I growled, injecting every ounce of conviction into the words. ‘I handed her over to Di, who, on Reese’s authority, dragged her to some rehab facility.’
Roxy tilted her head but said nothing.
‘I don’t know where they’ve taken her. I’m shot of her, for good.’
I leaned forward on my knees.
‘Whatever toxic garbage she fed you at the venue was more of her manipulative lies.’
‘Yet you still chose her. You always did. You never truly saw me; so don’t pretend to see me now,’ she muttered with a touch of bitterness.
‘You think I never saw you?’ I rasped. ‘You think I spent the last twenty years completely blind?’
Roxy crossed her arms, her jaw set, refusing to give an inch.
‘You failed to remember that you bought my monogrammed guitar thumb pick,’ I grated. ‘I never forgot you gave it to me; I cherished it, and I’ve used it on every single album we’ve ever recorded.’
She blinked, a crack appearing in her cold stance as I rasped on.
‘When you were ten, you cried for three days because your father mowed over a patch of wild clover in the yard,’ I continued.
‘I adored how you hated green olives, because the smell was revolting, yet now you eat tons of them. Also, how you always hid under the back porch with a sketchbook to draw, and how you loathed the smell of lilies because they reminded you of your grandmother Tabitha’s passing. ’
‘Angel -.’
‘I know you prefer cream and yellow roses over red ones,’ I trucked on, laying it all out between us.
‘You hold your breath whenever you’re trying to paint fine lines, and you bite your bottom lip right before you’re about to say something profound.
You hate mushy textured food, you love the sound of rain hitting a metal roof, and you still keep that crushed velvet ribbon from the fifteenth birthday gift I gave you tucked in the back of your art journal.
Evangeline was the noise, Roxy, but I’ve cataloged every single detail about you since I met you.
I’ve always seen you, albeit as a sister first, but now as the love of my life, and you have my utter and complete attention. ’
She stared at my face for a long time, then let her gaze drop down to my clothes as the downpour pelted my shoulders.
‘Your jeans are getting ruined,’ she said, her voice dropping to a whisper. ‘And my front entrance is wet, Angel. Please leave.’
She stepped back and pushed the door shut with a definitive click.
I remained on my knees on the stoop, shattered to the core.
Fuck.
Her rejection sliced right through my soul, and I groaned as pain twisted through me.
For a few long minutes I remained where I was, reeling.
Then, without warning, a violent retching echoed from inside the lodge.
More sounds of Roxy in distress trailed it.
My instincts took over.
I lunged forward, trying the door.
She’d locked it.
‘Roxy? What’s wrong?’
I got no answer.
‘Open the door!’
All I heard was her frantic sobs in between gagging noises.
When I caught more whimpering, I lost it, throwing my shoulder against the top half of the door.
The hinges gave way, and I kicked the door open.
It yawed ajar, the lock falling apart as I burst through the entrance.
I caught sight of Roxy doubled in half, staggering down the hallway.
Following her into a bathroom, I dropped to the tile floor just as she reached the toilet bowl, sinking before it.
I gathered her close, holding her as her body convulsed and she lost her last meal.
When the spasms passed, I grabbed a washcloth, soaked it in warm water, and crouched beside her to help her clean up.
That’s when she turned to me and hit me with the coldest glare.
‘Now that you’ve seen me at my worst, get the hell out of here.’
‘Roxy -.’
‘Get the fuck out.’
She hissed the words at me, almost screaming with vehemence as she hunched over the toilet bowl.
A gut punch of twisted emotion hit me.
Then I cursed, rose, and backed out slowly, hands raised in surrender.
‘Go!’ she yelled when I paused at the door.
Shaking my head, I obeyed.
She was skittish as hell, and I sensed that if I didn’t honor her wishes, she’d spook and never let me close ever again.
I hit her hallway, heart-wrenching.
However, I slowed at the front door.
It swung ajar, its latches offside from my forced entry into her house.
‘Need to fix your door, babe. I’ll be back,’ I called out.
‘Fine, then disappear forever after that.’
I headed to the truck and pulled out tools from the rear toolbox.
Retrieving nails and a power screwdriver, I went to her door.
I fastened the loosened hinges and drove the tacks in.
I also fixed her mangled lock, but the bolt mechanism was shattered.
The door would close, but she’d no lock on it.
I’d pick one up for her in town tomorrow.
‘It’s repaired,’ I called out into the hallway when I was done.
There was no answer, so with an inhale, I eased the doorway shut.
I leaned my forehead on the cold brick next to the entrance jamb, closing my eyes, shuddering from being so close yet so far from her.
I paced the porch as the downpour petered away into a miserable drizzle.
Sitting on a bench on the covered vestibule, I stared down at my hands, wondering how to get her back and never let her slip from me ever again.
Unable to bring myself to leave, I stretched out on the seat, eyes to the cloudy sky, mind racing.
Time passed, clouds shifting and disappearing, chased by the moon.
A sliver of dawn’s light peeked over the horizon.
Just as I was about to slip into slumber, more dry heaving filtered through the front door.
Roxy.
I knifed up and swung my legs, surging to the door.
The lock was still open, and I pushed in and rushed through the house.
I followed the heaving sounds until I found her in what seemed to be the primary bathroom, hunched once more over another toilet bowl.
‘Dammit,’ I muttered as I crouched to her side and slipped an arm around her waist to support her.
Was she sick? Was it food poisoning?
She slapped away my hands, but I was relentless, holding her as she convulsed.
She sagged against me moments later, and I reached for a towel by the sink to wipe her mouth.
She took it with a grimace, her mouth twisting, eyes spitting fury at me.
‘I told you to leave me alone! When will you get that through your head, Angel?’
She sat back on her heels, resting her spine on the tiled wall while her palms cupped her lower stomach, her chest heaving.
That’s when my gaze dropped to where her shirt clung to her frame, her hands cradling her abdomen, revealing a distinct, rounded swell.
My brain stalled; a gut punch went through me.
I lurched forward and fell to my knees in front of her, staring at her.
‘The fuck, Rox? You’re pregnant. How did that happen?’
The words blurted out of my mouth before I could stop them.
Roxy rolled her eyes at me through her pale exhaustion. ‘How do you think, genius?’
I stared at her belly, then up into her eyes, my chest tightening.
‘Is it mine?’
She arched a brow. ‘Whose else would it be?’
‘Are you serious?’
A wild blend of a laugh and a groan ripped from my throat as a cascade of electric shocks went through me along with a surge of wild joy.
‘Are you sure?’ I rasped, almost lightheaded, needing the confirmation again.
Roxy nodded once. ‘That I’m knocked up and that it’s yours, yes.’
‘How? What? When?’ I stammered.
‘Cannes, I think. My pill must have failed,’ was all she offered.
She staggered to her feet, rinsed her mouth at the sink, brushed her teeth, and walked into the kitchen.
I followed right on her heels, my protective instincts howling like a wolf.