Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 404(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 404(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
And then I heard Constantine. “We really have to do this here?” He spoke in a way I’d never heard him before. He didn’t raise his voice and yell, but his tone was fucking ice cold.
I stopped in my tracks and backed up a couple of steps, finding him talking with someone apart from the crowd. It was the woman I’d spotted with his sister at one of the other tables, and she looked as miserable now as she had then.
“I just think it’s disrespectful, Con.”
“Disrespectful?” he exclaimed. “This is my mother’s house. This is my family. I can do whatever I damn well please. I can bring whomever I want.”
“And you didn’t think of my feelings at all?”
“No.” The viciousness in his eyes was something he’d never shown to me. It reminded me of the way Enzo had looked at me toward the end of our relationship, like he wanted nothing to do with me. “Because your feelings aren’t my responsibility, Isabella. They aren’t my problem. The only feelings I care about are Aurelia’s, and the last thing I want is for her to feel uncomfortable. Unless that’s what you’re hoping for? That she comes back from the bathroom, asks me about this conversation, and then I tell her about all this nonsense because you know I won’t lie to her, and then she walks away because she doesn’t want the headache.”
“So, this is serious?” She winced like he’d already given her the answer she didn’t want.
“No.”
“Then why would you bring her—”
“It’s not serious yet. But it will be.”
Her head made a distinct jerk as she looked away. It was as if he’d slapped her with an invisible hand. “You’re an asshole.”
“Oh, I’m an asshole?”
“You slept with me, dangled us in front of me like a fucking carrot—”
“Don’t rewrite history. You’d just gotten divorced and said you wanted one night. I did not give you any indication that I wanted us again. I will never want us again. And don’t act like I didn’t make that crystal fucking clear before we hooked up. Now I would do anything to take it back because clearly that was a fucking mistake—”
He stopped talking when she started to cry, when her bottom lip trembled and she did everything she could to stop herself from crying.
Constantine bowed his head and squeezed his eyes shut, grimacing at the destruction he’d caused. Fortunately for them, everyone was too drunk and absorbed in the fun to notice the soap opera playing out in the corner.
She took a deep breath and brought herself to a state of semicalm. “We were practically kids at the time, Con. Why can’t you just forgive me?”
Now, when he spoke, he was calm, like he really felt bad that he’d made her cry. “I have forgiven you, Issy.”
“No, you haven’t.”
“Just because I forgive you doesn’t mean I want to be with you.”
“We were so young. It was a stupid mistake.”
“We weren’t that young. Girls were always throwing themselves at me, and I could have fucked all of them and you wouldn’t have ever known. But I never did.” He closed his fist to his chest. “Because I’m fucking loyal. Because I fucking loved you. This is so stupid to even talk about right now because it’s been nine goddamn years.”
“And we’re still meant to be together, Con.”
“Why?” he challenged. “Because our families are close? What kind of fucking reason is that? The only people meant to be together are the ones who work their asses off to be together. You didn’t do that. You kissed my brother and lied to me.”
“He kissed me—”
“I never cared about the kiss. I cared about the lie. Trust is broken, and in my book, that can never be fixed. You break a bone and you mend it, but it’s never what it was. It aches in the cold, it hurts when you twist it a certain way. It’s not the same.”
Her bottom lip started to tremble again. She fought the tears from reaching the surface.
I wasn’t mad about this at all. I actually felt for her, because if I’d had Constantine the way she did and lost him, I’d be devastated. Not devasted for a year or two. But my whole fucking life. Desperate to get him back, even after a decade.
He looked over his shoulder at the back door, clearly searching for me. “I never thought I’d say this, but I hope my mom ambushed her. The last thing I want is to scare her off and have her think I’m still hung up on my ex or some bullshit.”
I knew I should leave and walk back to the main house in case he did look for me. He didn’t want to explain his conversation with Isabella, and I didn’t want to explain that I overheard the entire thing. Both of us wanted to keep those cards in our pockets.