Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 87181 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87181 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
I headed to the front of the restaurant to wait for Penelope. Ten minutes later, she appeared. I opened the door for her and let her in.
She shook off the snow from her winter coat and gave me a small smile. “Hi, Kai.”
“Hello.” I held the envelope out toward her. “I’m guessing this is what you want. Everything’s signed. It just needs your signature in a few spots.”
“Thank you.”
“Yeah.” I waited for her to remove herself from the restaurant, but she stood there staring at me as if something was sitting heavily on her chest. “What is it?” I asked.
“I owe you an apology.”
“I don’t want it.”
“Yes, but…” She took in a deep inhalation. “You were there for me when no one else was, Kai. In a way, many people never would be.”
“You don’t have to tell me the type of husband I was to you. I know. I lived it.”
“Yes, but…” She seemed nervous. I didn’t know why. She could’ve easily left the restaurant to avoid the uncomfortableness. She was good at leaving things. It was one of her strong suits. “With the affair and Lance—”
“I don’t want to talk about it, Penelope. You can go.”
“He left me,” she confessed. She said it as if I were supposed to react to her words. “It was after the baby was born. He said everything was moving too fast, and he wasn’t ready to be a father. He had his whole life ahead of him, and he couldn’t see him settling down at his age. So, he left us.”
Tears were rolling down her face, and I hated that some of me still wished to comfort her. She was telling me about the man she had an affair with and how he’d betrayed her after she betrayed me, and still, I felt for her. Or perhaps, I felt for that child. Maybe because I knew what it was like to be left behind. I knew how that heartbreak could rock a world upside down.
“What do you want me to do with this information, Penelope? Why are you telling me this?”
“The past two years have been hell, Kai. I’ve tried to reach out to you repeatedly, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I was embarrassed by my actions and knew I had no right to ask to be back in your life.”
Back in my life?
Was she joking?
There was no way she’d ever be a part of my life again.
“You disappeared for two years, Penelope. You left me high and dry. I couldn’t even file for divorce from you because you went ghost. There was a point when your reaching out would’ve meant something to me. That time has passed.”
She lowered her head for a moment, and her blue eyes swelled with emotion when she looked up. “I still love you, Kai.”
I huffed. Penelope must’ve been drinking that afternoon. “I think it’s time for you to leave.”
“No, no, listen. I thought I had pushed all those feelings away. I thought what I felt for you was gone, but after getting back into the dating world, after two years of seeing what was out there, I realized how good I had it with you. You are the love of my life.”
“It took you two years of shitty dates to realize I was a good catch?” I mocked, feeling anger building in my system. I hated that I was feeling frustrated over the topic. I was almost certain all my feelings for that woman had come and gone. Yet, there it was, rage. Annoyance. Disappointment.
“No, Kai. It took me hitting rock bottom to realize what I’d lost.”
“That’s funny. I thought you hit rock bottom when you had cancer, and I took care of you, carrying you around the house when you were too weak to move—shaving my head so you wouldn’t feel alone. Taking care of you when no one else was there. I figured that was your rock bottom.”
“I was young and stupid.”
“It was two years ago. You weren’t that young, and you’ve never been stupid.”
“I know, I know…I made bad mistakes.”
“You had an affair and left me when you got pregnant with the person’s kid. That’s not a bad mistake. That’s a choice. You chose him, and that’s fine. I’m over it.”
“I thought I was over it, too. Truly, but then I saw you a few weeks ago and….” She sat the envelope against the bar counter, approached me, and took my hands into hers.
What the hell was happening?
“I love you, Kai,” she exclaimed.
“Are you drunk?”
“No. I have been in a daze since I saw you again. I tried to push you out of my mind. I wanted to bring you the divorce papers to move on with my life, but then I saw you, and all I wanted to do was….” Her words faded, and she stood on her tiptoes within seconds, passing her lips against mine.