Ready for You (Ready #3)(73)

God, I was even going to miss the dog.

In a matter of months, my life had become completely immersed in hers. It was to the point where I didn’t even know how to exist without her. Everything reminded me of her. I couldn’t eat without thinking of the meals we’d shared together. I couldn’t sleep because I’d remember the nights she’d spent safe in my arms. All the while, she had belonged to another man.

I heard her a split second before she opened the door. She was yelling at Sam to be quiet. She pulled the door open, and I saw her instantly freeze. My heart lurched at the sight of her standing before me. Even in my anger, I still wanted her, and even as she stood there in stunned silence, I couldn’t help but notice how beautiful she was.

Without a bit of makeup on and wearing nothing but a pair of cutoff shorts and a faded tank top, she was perfection, my natural beauty.

No, not mine, I reminded myself. She belongs to someone else.

“Garrett,” she finally breathed out.

“We need to talk,” I said quickly. My eyes darted around her in search of him.

She nodded in agreement. “Yes, there’s so much I need to explain.”

I ignored her comment. There wasn’t much I really wanted her to explain. I didn’t want details.

I stepped into the foyer, and my eyes continued their erratic dance around the house, searching for any clue of the bastard’s presence. I didn’t think I could handle seeing them together.

“He’s not here,” Mia said softly.

“What?”

“Aiden. He left the morning after you left.”

My fists tightened at my sides, and I felt the blood heat in my veins. Visions of the two of them entangled in Mia’s sheets flashed through my head. “The morning after, huh? Did you have a nice reunion with your future husband, Mia?”

“Stop. Please stop, Garrett,” she begged, tears staining her cheek.

I stalked forward, taking several steps, until I could feel her ragged breath on my neck. “Why? Does it bother you that I finally found out?” I bit out.

“We were never engaged.”

Taken aback, I tilted her chin upward, meeting her watery gaze. “He seemed to think you were.”

“He was angry,” she said. “There’s so much I didn’t tell you, so much I’ve kept hidden from both of you.”

Taking my hand, she led me to the living room. Sitting next to me on the couch, she spent the next hour telling me about the life she’d had after she left me—the real life without any gaps.

She’d met someone. When I had been drinking myself to oblivion just to be able to stand human contact, she had been happy and living with someone.

It f**king hurt, but at the same time, I felt a smidgen of relief, knowing she hadn’t been living in the same hell I had for the past eight years. I wouldn’t wish that upon anyone.

“He really was a wonderful man, Garrett,” she said.

“So, if he was so wonderful, why didn’t you stay in Atlanta?” I asked with a twinge of bitterness in my voice.

I’d said, it was a smidgen of relief, a very small smidgen. The rest of what I was feeling was just raw hostility.

“When I met Aiden, I was all alone in a new city. He was nice and charming and uncomplicated. He was focused on himself, which afforded me the only type of relationship I was able to give. He didn’t want kids or a ring. He just wanted someone to share dinners with and take to work functions.”

And share his bed. That part wasn’t lost on me, and seeds of jealousy took root in my mind, sprouting with vengeance as I once again pictured the two of them together. I hadn’t believed that Mia was celibate in the eight years we were apart, but now, I had a face to go with my worst nightmare. It was like someone describing Freddy Krueger compared to actually seeing him firsthand.

“But then, he wanted more?” I assumed.

“Yes.” She nodded. “I should have seen it coming, but I did my best to ignore it. When I met him for dinner one night, I walked into a completely deserted restaurant covered in flowers and candles, and I panicked. He gave this beautiful speech about how much he loved me and how he wanted me to be the mother of his children, and all I could do was stare at the exit, trying to figure out how quickly I could make a run for it.”

“Why?” I pressed, needing to know.

She took a deep breath and turned her eyes up toward mine. “At the time, I told myself it was because I was hiding so much from him. He didn’t know anything about me. And most importantly,” she said quietly, her eyes squeezing shut as her voice faltered, “he didn’t know I couldn’t have those children he wanted so desperately.”

The air in my lungs suddenly halted at her confession. “What do you mean?”

Tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes, and she took a choked breath. “I should have told you earlier. I shouldn’t have kept it from you for so long,” she babbled through her tears.

“Mia, please, help me understand,” I said gently.

“The night I miscarried…when I went into the ER, they did the procedure to…remove the baby.” She paused, her tears turning into strangled sobs.

I pulled her hand into mine, stroking it with the pad of my thumb.

“It happened all so quickly, and I found out later that there was quite a bit of scarring…so much so that I can’t carry another baby—ever.”