Half Empty (First Wives, #2)(80)
Lori opened her phone and showed him the pictures in silence.
Reed’s smile fell.
She pointed toward the camera at the door. “Nothing new,” she said.
“Let’s get you home, then.” He ushered them into the car and out of the parking lot.
“This stays between us,” he said without offering any other words on the subject of a dead woman at Ruslan’s hand.
“We’re one step ahead of you,” Lori told him.
Trina glanced out the back window of the SUV and wondered just how many eyes could possibly be on her at that moment.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“I don’t want to leave.” Wade stood on Trina’s porch, holding her in his arms. Jeb sat in the car with the engine running to keep it cool in the Texas heat. Even though fall was nipping the air in the rest of the country, Texas didn’t get the memo.
“I know. I appreciate the thought of you wanting to stay, but it isn’t practical, Wade. My life is complicated, and it isn’t fair that I’ve monopolized yours as much as I have.”
“That’s my choice.”
“Is it? Wouldn’t you rather have taken me out dancing, made love to me out in a field somewhere, and sent me flowers in the morning instead of spending all our time in hospitals and talking to the police?”
Wade blinked a few times. “Sorry, I’m stuck on the image of you naked in a field.”
She playfully slapped his chest. “None of this, of us, has been normal.”
“Yeah, and I’m usually the cause. It’s kinda nice to have the crazy on the other side of the relationship.”
Trina smiled. “Glad I could help with that.” She slipped her hands around his waist.
He pulled her closer. “I miss you already.”
Her eyes grew misty.
“Hey . . . no tears.”
“Sorry.” She looked down.
“Don’t be. A woman crying over me is wildly exciting. But if it hurts too much, I’ll unpack my bags now.”
Trina swallowed back her mist and faked a smile. “I’m good. Besides, you need to stock up on supplies while you’re gone.” Supplies meaning condoms. They’d talked about it the night before when they burned through the last of them.
“Nawh, I’m going to see my doctor and ditch the need.”
She liked the sound of that.
He looked over his shoulder at the car before pulling her as close as two bodies could be with their clothes on.
“I’m going to miss you,” he whispered as he leaned down to kiss her.
The tears were there again, fueling her response and making her cling to him. What if he walked away and realized he didn’t want the drama anymore? What if he found Jordyn more appealing when he got home? What if his fans reminded him of all the things he would give up by having an exclusive girlfriend?
What if he didn’t come back?
She clung to him for one last taste before he broke away.
“I’ll be back,” he said against her lips.
“I wouldn’t blame you if you ran off and never looked over your shoulder,” she said but didn’t mean.
“That isn’t going to happen.”
“Good. Because I was lying. I’ll hunt you down and make you fall in love with me.” Where those words had come from, she wasn’t sure. But she didn’t regret them when they fell out of her mouth.
“Will you?”
“I can be very persuasive when determined.”
“This I can’t wait to see.”
She reached up to kiss him again.
He pulled away and leaned his forehead on hers. “If I don’t leave now, I’m not going to.”
She would never know if he would come back if she didn’t let him go.
She rubbed her hands on his chest one last time and dropped them to her sides.
“I’ll call when I get home.”
“Okay.”
He turned and jogged down the steps.
She watched his backside as he walked to the car.
“Your eyes are burning a hole in my ass, little lady.”
“Get used to it.”
He tossed his head back and laughed as he climbed into the car.
She watched as he disappeared down her driveway, and clenched her shirt over her chest. “He’ll be back,” she told herself.
“He’ll be back.”
Traffic sucked, and it took three hours to drive from Trina’s home to Wade’s ranch. It took four hours to talk his mother off the ledge. Five minutes to tell Ike one final time that he no longer needed him and remind him of the confidentiality clause in his signed contract if Ike planned on ever working again. Ike was reminded to keep anything he’d heard or seen in regards to Trina to himself. Saying goodbye to a man Wade thought was his friend wasn’t as hard as he thought it would be when he noticed how quickly Ike reminded him of the financial severance they’d agreed on if they ever parted ways.
The letters of recommendation, however, weren’t something Wade was willing to deliver.
The inner circle that included his agent and publicist was quick to smile and tell Wade whatever he wanted to hear. Which only left Jeb and his mother to tell him the truth about anything. Considering his mother’s take on things, that really only left Jeb.