Love, Exes, and Ohs (Cactus Creek #4)(50)

Huh, maybe the guy was just handsy with everyone. Suddenly, his ass-pats the other week didn’t seem quite so offensive.

“Anyway, I’ll let you two get back to your date.”

Griffin gave her a long lost hug. “Xoey, it was so great catching up with you.”

Catching up?

She wondered what the atmosphere was like on his happy little planet. Must be nice.

Another lip twitch came from Isaac.

Man, her poker face clearly needed work.

“And you.” Griffin did a cheesy double-pointing thing at Isaac. “You, call me so we can go grab drinks one night with all the guys. We miss you, man.”

“Yeah, of course. I’ve been pretty broken up about that, too.” Isaac mimicked the double-pointing thing, and Xoey just barely held back a burst of laughter

One more triple-pat on Isaac’s cheek and he was off.

“You know, I really have no idea why I chose you over him.”

Isaac chuckled.

“Oh crap,” she sighed. “He’s coming back this way. I think the GPS on his space ship might be broken.”

Isaac’s shoulders shook with even more quiet laughter. “Christ, I’ve missed that quick mind of yours.”

Griffin was oblivious to their amusement as he torpedoed back over to them, zeroing in on Isaac, missile lock already deploying his business card like a magic trick.

Ah, of course.

“I forgot to leave you my card, man. Word on the street is that you opened up an MMA gym after you left. Smart, man. Really smart. Now I know you used to be the king badass with money back in the day but you’ve been out of the game for years. Your luck can turn on a dime in this market. So let’s have a real sit down and talk about your finances. I want to make sure my boy is protected.”

Xoey swung a puzzled look Isaac’s way. It sounded like…they’d worked together before. Why wouldn’t he have mentioned that?

Isaac just nodded hastily and pocketed the card. “Sounds great. I’ll call you.”

“You better. Because if I hear Ole Mack went belly up because he was too proud to ask for my help, it’s going to break my heart. You hear me? Think about it, man.”

This time, Isaac didn’t answer.

But he did finally meet her gaze.

Probably because her eyes had narrowed down to slits.

Griffin, who apparently wasn’t as stupid as he sounded, vanished a moment later.

In the movies, the big gasping revelation always came quick and struck like lightning.

Turns out, that wasn’t the case at all.

It took Xoey a few seconds to dissect and pinpoint, to match up what her ears had just heard to the unease she felt hit her square in the gut.

And then there it was.

It didn’t wallop like thunder or pierce her like a bullet.

No, it gathered up all her emotions and boiled it in a caldron—shock, anger, horror, hurt, and betrayal.

…Before eventually bubbling over in trembling, unmitigated rage.

“He just called you Mack.”





CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO


“WHY DID HE JUST call you ‘Mack?’”

Isaac watched the anger and hurt swimming in her eyes and it gutted him to tell her the answer she was already dreading, “The guys I used to work with had this thing about using last names—for me, they just shortened McKnight to ‘Mack.’”

Stunned, she ran her eyes all over his features, cataloging each one as if seeing it for the first time. “It’s you.”

He didn’t want to keep it from her anymore. “Yes. It’s me.”

Tears and a look of betrayal so cuttingly deep slashed across her face as she backed away from him. “All this time.”

“No.” He followed her as she fled to her office. “Xoey, stop. It’s not what you think.”

She spun around in rage. “Really? Because I think you’re ‘Mack,’ the guy who never called me after he hit-it-and-quit-it with me. And my virginity. The guy whose friends ridiculed me behind my back, making me feel like just one more dumb slut who fell for ‘Mack’s’ player ways on the day that I went to go look for him to tell him I was pregnant with our child. Tell me, which part of that do I have wrong?”

“None of it, all of it.” He growled in frustration, and sidestepped to keep her from running away from him. “Please. Just let me explain—”

“Did you know this entire time? Were you just thanking your lucky stars that I’d been too drunk, and that you’d looked nothing like,” she waved her hand over him, “this back then for me to remember you?” Her hands fisted. “Did you know when I was telling you about him? Pouring my soul out to you?!”

“No. Absolutely not. I swear, Xoey. I didn’t know until that day I went to get your clothes and rollerblades for you from your apartment. That’s when I found your Bears jersey. My Bears jersey.”

Utter confusion momentarily took away the fury. “But you’re a Packers fan.”

“But as you well know already, my dad isn’t. That was his jersey. He got it as a gift from a client.”

“Then why did you have it?”

“Because Cody was a Bears fan just like my dad. And my dad had given him that jersey. After Cody’s funeral, my dad gave it to me to have something of Cody’s to keep close.”