I swiped at my face, sniffing back the tears again. “I would have done anything for Reid.”
“I know, but sometimes the best thing you can do is let go.” I shook my head in irritation. I didn’t need another person telling me that I was wrong. “Is he happy?”
“I don’t know. I’ve gotten reports, but all they say is what he’s doing.”
“But he’s safe?”
I bristled at his question. Like that was the only thing that mattered. “I don’t know. I know what they tell me, but that doesn’t tell me what’s going on inside the house. I don’t know if he’s happy, and I’m not allowed to talk to them. He hasn’t called, so I have no clue if he’s okay or not.”
“Florrie, I know your boss. I’m assuming that he’s keeping an eye on the situation. Am I right?”
I nodded.
“So, what happened after that?”
What hadn’t happened? I bit my lip, shaking my head slightly as I recalled the last two months. All the things that could have been said, but never were. And the things that shouldn’t have been said, but I threw them out there anyway.
“I couldn’t forgive Alec for not helping me. I blamed him for Reid being taken away. Every time I looked at him, all I could see was his betrayal. And then he would try and do things to make me happy, but it felt like he was trying to make it up to me. He built me a deck and told me that he just wanted to make me happy, but how does building me a deck replace the kid that was taken from me?”
“He wasn’t trying to replace your kid with a deck,” he said slowly, like I was fucking stupid.
“I know that. I’m not an idiot, but that’s what it felt like. And he kept telling me that we could still be happy together. But it’s not enough, not when something has been taken from me that I wanted so much.”
Jamie blew out a breath and sat down on the couch. “Do you want to know what I think?”
I huffed out a laugh, because I was sure he was going to tell me no matter what. “Sure.”
“I think that if it were me, and my fiancé told me that it wasn’t enough to just be happy on our own, I think that would kill me. You basically told him he wasn’t good enough for you.”
“That’s not what I said.”
“Florrie, the two of you can’t have kids together. Now, that’s not a difference of one of you wanting kids and the other not. This is something that you are going through together. And now, because Reid got taken away, Alec’s no longer enough for you? I’m sorry, but when I see the way he looks at you, you move the sun and the moon in his universe. You’re everything to him, and it seems to me like you’re telling him he’s nothing to you.”
Was that really how it sounded? That wasn’t how I meant any of it. I just hated that something I wanted so much was taken away from me. And I hated that Alec had contributed to that. But I was too tired to think about this anymore tonight. I just wanted to get some sleep and forget about my problems.
“Can I stay on your couch tonight?”
He shook his head. “No. Florrie, I’m a millionaire. I have a guest room. You can have a fucking bed.”
✯✯✯✯✯
I had spent two nights at Jamie’s house so far. The first day, I mostly sat on Jamie’s couch and watched TV. He had work to do and couldn’t cancel all his meetings at the last minute. Today, he went in for a half day and then came home to spend the rest of the day with me. I was shocked when he walked through the door just after lunch, and then spent the rest of the day with me on the couch. We watched movies and ate popcorn. He teased me about my choice of movies. Apparently, I was a little cliche in my liking of action movies. So, when I chose a romantic movie and caught him welling up, I couldn’t help but tease him.
“Shut up. That was sad,” he said, wiping at his eyes. “Besides, it was the spice in the popcorn. I accidentally rubbed some in my eyes.”
“The popcorn is flavored with butter,” I pointed out.
“Well, it was spicy butter.”
I nodded, pretending that he was right, even though we both knew that he was full of shit. Although, I liked his softer side. It was nice to be with a man that wasn’t all hard and tough. “Okay, so now I get to choose a movie.”
“Fine, but if you choose Die Hard again, I’m going in the other room.”
“They weren’t all Die Hard,” I grumbled. “It’s a series.”
“And yet they all end the same way, with someone being shot.”
“What’s the difference between that and the movies you watch? Like that last one you chose?”
“P.S. I Love You? How is that like anything you’ve ever watched?”
I scoffed at his reluctance to see what I could see so clearly. “You’re kidding, right? The girl falls in love. She’s disappointed, and then falls in love with a new guy. It all ends in love and romance, just like every other romance movie out there.”
“I beg to differ,” he scoffed back. “I have never seen a movie where you have to watch as a woman gets over losing her husband like that. That was fucking brutal.”
“Oh come on! Every movie nowadays is filled with tragedy. That’s the only way you can make a romantic movie interesting. Look at every Nicholas Sparks movie.”
“Alright, well, you may have a point there, but I still say that my choice was original.”
He yawned and checked the time on his watch. He was used to getting up early, whereas I was always staying up late. I tossed a pillow at his face. “I guess you
