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Michael rubbed a hand over his face, reument in their hotel room in Hartwell after he’d told her who Dahlia had been to him

“All this tiht it was your preoccupation with your job I hated your job I blaht But it wasn’t the long hours or that look you’d get on your face that told ain, or that we couldn’t afford a bigger place on your salary All of that was shit

“I don’t care about any of that I didn’t knoas keeping you from me Now I do It was her I knoas her … because you have never looked atabout , the way you sound when you say her name”

Would Dahlia keep ruining things for him, then?

Would she haunt hi it hard for him to connect with someone else?

Because that’s what had happened, right?

He’d kept Kiersten at arth so she couldn’t pull “a Dahlia” on him

Sighing, he got out of his car, locked it up, andthe door to his apartment, Michael stepped inside the airy space and tried not to process the emptiness He hadn’t done much to make it a home There was a couch, ar room A table and chairs in the kitchen A bed and bedside tables in the bedroo else in there

Their Everett house was filled with all the fes that seemed like nonsense to Michael Now he realized Kiersten had ht

He slumped on his bed

He’d checked out on her

And she wasn’t even trying to h he deserved it

He’d fucked over a good woman, the way Dahlia had fucked over him

Lying back on the bed, Michael groaned, hating the way her face invaded his mind It was eleven years since they’d met Eleven years

Still feeling like this … well, that shit wasn’t right