Which is the real issue, because Mateo wouldn’t have done that by accident. I don’t know why he wanted to kick up so much shit around me, but he must have known what he was doing.
Now if only I did.
Chapter Four
Meg
“Can you zip me?”
Since I’m in Mateo’s study, and I came all the way here from our bedroom, he glances up in surprise. Which is reasonable. How does one walk all that way without coming into contact with another human being who could have zipped me up?
I didn’t. And Maria offered. But I wanted him.
Mia’s going to be here any minute, and while I’m not feeling as crazy as I was last night after the wedding, I still wanna make my man touch me.
“How are you feeling today?” he asks, getting up from his desk and coming around to help me.
What’s funny about this question is he doesn’t mean physically, because of my pregnancy. He means mentally, since I was a little cracked last night. Like it’s unreasonable to feel a little weird about your fiancé slow dancing with, flashing his big brown hypnotic eyes at, and kissing the motherfucking hand of the girl he fucked before you. A girl who has slept in your bed. A girl you’ve wondered if he had some unresolved feelings for on more than one occasion. A girl who looks at him with her heart in her eyes. A girl he has joked about making your sister wife.
But yeah, I must not have been feeling well.
Ugh, I’m getting annoyed again. Can’t have that. Mia and Vince will be here anytime. It’s game time.
I cock my head from side to side, regaining my focus. “Yep, I’m good,” I assure him. “I talked to Mia earlier. It seemed like she and Vince were doing okay today.”
I look back at him over my shoulder as I deliver that, and after zipping up my dress, with a faint smile on his lips, he points his finger up in the air and sarcastically twists it around a few times to indicate he gives zero fucks.
Okay then.
So I offer a light roll of my eyes and add, “I thought maybe we could grab lunch earlier, but apparently I interrupted. She and Vince were about to get in the shower. So hey, I guess if they’re not doing okay, it’s working for them.”
I have no possible frame of reference for what to expect after saying this. I’m literally throwing shit at the wall and seeing what happens.
Mateo is still behind me, but his grip on my shoulders tightens as he pulls me back against his chest.
“What are you doing?” he asks mildly.
My heart pounds, but I maintain a tone of complete innocence as I ask, “What do you mean?”
“Don’t bullshit me, Meg.”
My heart kicks up a couple of gears, then I say, “I was just… relaying—”
“You were trying to get a rise out of me,” he states, not letting me finish. “I know what you were doing; I want to know why you’re doing it.”
Since apparently we’re doing this, I pull one of his hands off my shoulder and turn to face him. “Do you want Mia?”
He holds my gaze for a moment, then instead of responding, checks his watch. He checks the fucking time. “Why don’t we talk about this later?”
My blue eyes practically pop out of my head. My stomach sinks. I can’t find words.
“They’re going to be here any minute,” he adds. “This isn’t a quick discussion.”
I guess that answers that, then.
I’m not sure how I’m supposed to stand in the kitchen and make dinner with her now, when I kind of want to stab her.
“Are you fucking her already?” I ask. My voice completely betrays me by wobbling with emotion in the middle of that question, and I want to curl up and die.
“No,” he says, firmly, grabbing my shoulders and bending to look into my eyes. “I didn’t mean it that way. This is exactly what I don’t want. I wish, if you needed to talk to me about this today, you would’ve done it before now. It’s too late, Meg. People are going to show up for dinner any minute.”
I want to flip my shit on him, tell him I don’t care if people are going to be here, this is my life, this is more important than goddamn dinner, and I need to know what the fuck is going on.
But I don’t. Because I know better.
I feel like I’m going to throw up, but I don’t blow up at him.
I feel like an idiot. But I don’t say so.
Mateo surprises me, pulling a ballsy fucking move, leaning in to give me a gentle, reassuring kiss. If I ever doubted he had gonads before, I wouldn’t now, when he actually has the gall to kiss me after all but admitting he wants to fuck my best friend.