Chapter 24
24
Mateo
“I don’t know what to tell you, Mateo. She says she’s fine.”
“She’s not,” Mateo said, rubbing at his eyes. “Something is wrong, and it started on Friday last week.” He hadn’t gotten much sleep over the last week. Between Caroline attempting to reach out to him again and Nikki avoiding him like the plague, he couldn’t seem to keep his head on straight.
Now, his work was suffering. He knew it was bad because Sophia had finally cornered him to ask him what was going on.
“If you don’t believe me, go talk to her yourself,” Sophia snapped.
He glanced over to her, finding her hands on her hips and that look of frustration on her face that said she meant business. The fact that she hadn’t taken him by the ear and dragged him to Nikki herself was a surprise, to say the least. Mateo scowled at her. “You know I can’t do that.”
“Why not? She’s your girlfriend.”
“Because she won’t talk to me. Any time I try to get her alone, she’s either busy or she takes off. I’m telling you, something happened.”
Sophia glanced at the building where Nikki worked as if that would give her the answer they were both looking for. “Maybe she’s scared.”
“Scared of what?” he practically shouted with exasperation. “I haven’t done anything to scare her off. I got her flowers. That was it.”
Sophia chewed on her lower lip. “I don’t know.”
Mateo was a bundle of nerves. The more he thought about it, the more he knew he was failing. The last time he’d been in a serious relationship, he’d been upfront and communicative, and that didn’t work out well, either. Nikki wasn’t Caroline. He really shouldn’t be comparing the two of them to each other. If he were honest with himself, he would say that he cared for Nikki more than he had ever cared for Caroline. And perhaps that was the problem.
He was terrified of chasing her away. If she wasn’t ready to talk to him about something, he needed to give her space.
But the voice in his head insisted that he was wrong. This wasn’t a simple matter of miscommunication. He was trying. And she wanted space. He stifled a groan, prepared to finally ask Sophia for advice—something he’d told himself he would never do.
But her sharp tone cut him off.
“You have got to be kidding me. What is she doing here?”
His eyes snapped to a woman who had just climbed out of a sportscar.
No.
This couldn’t be happening! What was she doing here?
Immediately, he looked toward the cafeteria. If Nikki saw her, it was over. He knew there was nothing going on with Caroline; they were no longer friends. But he also knew that Nikki had some severe self-confidence issues when it came to this vile woman. Without answering his sister’s question, he darted forward, praying he would be able to get her to leave before his whole world officially imploded.
“Caroline,” he gritted out when he was close enough. “What are you doing here?”
She smiled at him, her bright red lipstick stretching thinly across her face. A matching fingernail traced down his sternum. “I came to see you, silly.”
He snatched her wrist and held it firmly. “You need to leave.”
Caroline pouted. “You don’t really mean that, do you?”
Mateo gritted his teeth, already hearing Sophia’s approach from behind. His voice was a low growl as he glowered at Caroline. “You’re not welcome here, which means you’re trespassing. This is private property, and as such, I’m asking you to vacate the premises before I have to get the authorities involved.”
She tilted her head, her eyes sparking. “This is about that other woman, isn’t it?” Her focus shifted to scan the immediate area, but she didn’t seem to find what she was looking for as she brought her gaze to lock with his again. “You’re not going to get rid of me that easy.”
“On the contrary, I think you will find it’ll be easier than you expect.” He released her wrist and took a step back. “I don’t love you anymore.”
“You don’t love the person I was,” she corrected him. “I’ve changed.”
“I don’t care.”
Caroline strode closer and reached out to touch his face. Fire burned in his chest, the temptation to yank her hand behind her back and escort her to her car stronger than it had ever been. But he just stood there. She needed to see that she didn’t affect him. Thankfully, his determination was working. She frowned at him and dropped her hand. “I’m going to prove it to you, Mateo. I’m going to show you exactly what you’ve been missing, and you’re going to leave whoever that woman is for me. We belong together.”
“Come on, you heard him. Leave,” Sophia snapped, grabbing Caroline by the shoulders and spinning her around to push her toward her car. She threw a livid look at Mateo before she continued herding his ex back the way she’d come.
Mateo exhaled a sharp breath, feeling dirty for allowing her to even touch him. He watched her shuffle forward, heard her shrieks of protest when Sophia practically shoved her into her car. Caroline wasn’t going to give up. It wasn’t her style. She’d push and push until he had no more strength to push back. Then she’d slither under his defenses and tear him apart from the inside.
Slowly, he glanced toward the cafeteria, wishing he could just go to Nikki and hold her in his arms. He needed her strength and her humor. He needed reassurance that they were going to be okay.
Sophia shoved his shoulder so hard he stumbled back a step, his boot snagging on a rock before he tumbled to the dirt. He glowered up at her, the dust cloud around him permeating his senses.
“What was that for?” he snapped.
She stood above him, her eyes flashing with wild fury. “What were you thinking?”
He winced as he dusted the dirt from his hands and climbed to his feet. “What do you mean? I didn’t do anything.”
Sophia’s arm shot out, pointing a finger where Caroline had been parked. “Why would you let her come here?”
This time he focused on dusting his backside from the dirt that clung to it. “It’s a free country, Sophia,” he gritted out. “What did you want me to do? File for a restraining order?”
“Yes!”
His eyes snapped to meet hers before he released a baffled and yet jaded laugh. “You realize you can only request them after recorded conflicts have already taken place, right? She would have had to damage our property or hurt someone?—”
“She hurt you ! Or did you forget that when she had her hands all over you?”
He glowered at her. “She didn’t have her hands all over me,” Mateo said sheepishly.
Sophia scoffed. “From my vantage point, it didn’t look like you were bothered all that much by the way she was treating you. I wonder what Nikki might have thought if she caught you two together like that.”
A terrifying chill coursed down his spine. They were in a strong enough relationship that Nikki would have given him the benefit of the doubt, right? She would have asked him what was going on, and he would have told her. Part of him wished she had been out here with them when Caroline showed up. At least then she would have heard him tell Caroline to leave.
“How long has she been in town? Please tell me that she’s visiting friends or something and happened to find out we live here.”
Mateo dragged his hand down his face and groaned. “It’s not a secret that we moved here, Sophia. It’s all over our social media pages. It wouldn’t take a sleuth to figure out where we live.”
“So, she just shows up out of the blue? Nah. I don’t believe that for a second. She had to have reached out first.”
He avoided looking at her, and that was all it took for Sophia to put together some very important pieces.
“Mateo!” she hissed. “Please tell me you haven’t been speaking with her.”
Still, he didn’t respond. He should never have let her talk him into coffee.
“Are you kidding me?” Sophia paced in front of him, running her hands through her hair as her face tinted colors. “How many times, Mateo?”
“What?”
“How long have you been going behind Nikki’s back?—”
“I didn’t go behind her back,” he growled, prowling toward her. “I bumped into that lunatic in town, and she wanted to get coffee. That’s it.”
“ That’s it ,” she muttered sardonically. She threw her hands into the air. “Sometimes I don’t even know whether or not you care for Nikki or if it’s just?—”
His hand reached out lightning fast, and he took her wrist in his grasp. “Don’t you dare finish that sentence.”
Sophia’s face twisted with disgust as she dragged her hand from his.
“ Of course, I care about her. I care about her… a lot.” He nearly told his sister he was in love, but this wasn’t the time for that. Caroline’s presence and his sister’s accusations had soured the possibility for any sort of confession of love. “I don’t know why Caroline is showing up out of the blue. She must have figured out that we live here and she was in town, so she decided to… I don’t know.” He groaned. “She wants me back.”
Sophia snorted. “Of course she does. Because she’s a worm, and you’re… everything.”
He gave her a wry look.
“What?” she snapped. “You’re on a completely different level than her, and you know it. She doesn’t deserve the dirt beneath your feet.”
Mateo rubbed the back of his neck and glanced away. “Thanks,” he mumbled.
“I guess there’s one thing we can be grateful for.”
“What’s that?”
“Nikki didn’t see Caroline stop by. And all of Caroline’s feeble attempts to get you back? She didn’t see that either. We just have to make sure Caroline understands that she isn’t getting you back. She lost you when she chose that other guy, and there is no changing it.”
“I don’t think it’s going to be as easy as you think. Caroline is the type of person to go after what she wants even if the odds are stacked against her. She’s not going to give up until she gets me or destroys my life in the process.”
Sophia frowned contemplatively at him. “Then we have to make sure that doesn’t happen. Whatever is going on with Nikki—we need to fix it so you guys are strong.”
“That’s just it, though. How am I supposed to fix it if Nikki won’t tell me what’s wrong? Maybe this is all for nothing. Maybe I’m just going to be a bachelor for the rest of my life.”
Sophia snorted. “You’re not going to be a bachelor for the rest of your life. If it doesn’t work out with Nikki?—”
“I don’t want anyone else, Sophia,” he said in a whisper, but he knew she heard him based on the way her eyes widened and lips parted.
“Well, I guess you’re just gonna have to hang in there. The good thing is that Nikki hasn’t spoken to Caroline in ages. She said so herself. So that means she won’t know what Caroline is up to.”
He could tell by the sound of her voice that Sophia was trying to cheer him up. Maybe she felt guilty about how she’d reacted. Or maybe she could see the anguish he was dealing with. Mateo nodded and glanced once more toward the cafeteria building. “Yeah. You’re probably right.”
Sophia reached out to touch his arm, her voice quiet. “I’ll keep trying to talk to Nikki. If something is actually wrong, I’ll get it out of her.”
“Thanks, really ,” he repeated from before.
“What are sisters for?”