Unbreakable (City Lights, #2)(115)

I nodded. “Yes. I do.”





Chapter Forty-One


Alex



It was close to midnight by the time I arrived at my house on California Avenue. I approached the front door with my heart in my throat. I unlocked it with my second key, and opened it slowly, hoping not to wake Callie. If she slept at all.

I found Cory sitting on the couch his arms dangling between his knees. He looked up when I came in, his face haggard and drawn.

“Hey.”

I eased the door shut and sat on the short leg of the L-shaped couch, hunched in the silky black jacket I wore over my dress. “Hey. How is she?”

“Sleeping, but not heavily. She’s been pretty restless.”

“What happened?”

He shook his head, still incredulous. “Georgia wants a break, apparently, from being a mother. For how long…I don’t know. Forever, I think. Which is good, because if I see her again, I don’t know what I’ll do.”

“How did Callie take it?” I asked, not sure I wanted to hear the answer.

Cory looked away, his eyes shining. “She thinks it’s her fault, of course. I knew she would. I don’t know what to tell her that she’ll believe. I said her mom needed to be by herself of a little while, but Callie kept asking me questions that I didn’t have answers for. But she’s a smart kid and she got it. I watched that horrible truth sink its teeth in her and she just kept saying, how long? How long? Like, getting hysterical. Because she already knew. She knew it was forever, and ah Christ, my little girl…”

Cory covered his face with both hands, his shoulders shuddering. I moved to sit beside him and held him as best I could. He brought himself under control quickly, wiped his eyes in the crook of his arm and looked at me, his beautiful eyes bright with hope and shining with pain and full of love. Love. Not softness or care or any other word I had tried to call it. It was love.

“It’s terrible, what Georgia did to Callie,” he said. “And my heart breaks for her. But now I’m also sitting here, relieved, that it happened, for my sake. Because Alaska would have wrecked me. I know it. I would have warped into someone I wouldn’t recognize, trying to do the impossible.”

“What’s that?”

“Trying to forget you.”

“Oh, Cory…”

“Wait,” he said, cutting me off. “I’ve been too silent for too long. Too cowardly to just say what I should have said even before we got out of that damn bank.”

I felt a warmth glow in my heart and it seemed an eternity between Cory’s words and those that followed.

“I don’t give up on anything,” he said. “But I did the moment I told Georgia I’d marry her. I gave up on us. You and me. I thought I was going to build something there, something strong for Callie, but you can’t build something from nothing. Not even good intentions. So I’m sorry, Alex. I should have fought for you and I don’t even care what happened tonight at your party. I don’t expect anything in return. This situation with Callie…I don’t expect you to take it all on. I don’t expect you to take us on.”

“Cory—”

“I’m not done yet.” He swallowed hard, took my face in his hands, that crooked smile dancing nervously over his lips. “What I’m trying to say, and what I should have told you that night in the bank, after we christened that desk…”

I sniffed a little laugh.

“I love you, Alex. I’m crazy in love with you and I will be, for the rest of my life.”

I held his hands that held me, letting the words wash over me. I knew it already, of course I did. I had seen it in his eyes a hundred times, and I felt it the night he made love to me, but to hear it…

I opened my mouth to reply when the door to the guest room opened and Callie stepped out. She clutched her doll to her chest and watched us with red-rimmed eyes. “Alex?”

Cory released me, his face suddenly drawn and pained. I gave his hand a reassuring squeeze and went to Callie, knelt before her.

“Hi, honey. Can’t sleep?”

Callie shook her head. “I heard you guys talking. And I keep having bad dreams.” Her dark eyes looked up to Cory, who moved to stand behind me. “I wanted to make sure you’re still here, Daddy.”

I looked up and watched the words strike him, saw the effort it took him to smile.

“I’m not going anywhere, honey. Never. I swear it.”

Callie nodded and looked back at me. “You look so pretty in that dress. Was that your birthday party we saw?”

“No, honey. Let’s get you back in bed. It’s late.”

I took her by the hand and led her to her room, tucked her into her bed. Cory lingered at the door, watching.

“My mommy left,” Callie said, her lower lip trembling. “We were supposed to go to Alaska together but she left without me.”

“I know, baby.”

“Do you know why? I asked Daddy but I don’t think he knows.”

“I don’t know your mom, Callie, so I can’t say I know for sure. I can tell you what I think.”

“Okay.”

If you ever had a talent for making convincing speeches, now is the time. This is the moment. I drew a deep breath.