I gulped around the agony. Fumbling, I tried to hurry and unlock my SUV. I had to get away. Escape. Instead, my hands were shaking so badly I dropped my keys. They clattered to the ground. The only thing I managed was to draw more attention to myself.
I snatched the key ring up, trying to steady myself, my heart and my hands and my voice. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Frankie.”
“Ah, man. But I misses you.”
I miss you. I miss you. I miss you.
The world spun around me. A circuit of torment. I inhaled, blinked, my words barely a whisper. “I miss you, too.”
So much.
“Does Milo wants to come and play?”
Behind Janel, Rex slowly turned around. His entire being flinched when he saw me, and instantly, he cast his eyes to the floorboards of his porch. As if I’d broken him every bit as much as he’d broken me.
The hate in Janel’s expression shifted, and she looked up at him, beaming, before she set her hand on Frankie’s shoulder. “Come on, sweetheart. We’d better go before it gets too late.”
I floundered to get into the driver’s seat before slamming the door shut. I choked back tears as I pulled out of my drive, refusing to let her see me fall apart, my teeth clenched as I took the three quick turns to get out onto the main road.
I lost it just down the street, my eyes blurring over. I pulled into a convenience store parking lot, whipped into a parking spot, gripped the steering wheel in both hands. Head dropped. Gasping.
He lied to me.
Maybe this was the way it was supposed to end, anyway.
Maybe Janel had changed. What if she was exactly what they needed? The one who would make them whole again? Who would chase away the darkness that lingered in the depths of Rex’s eyes?
Every part of me rejected it. The fact she was Rex’s wife. That he belonged to her. Not when my heart screamed he was mine.
I jerked when the diner door swung open. But I wasn’t struck with the presence I’d been aching for over the last five days. Instead, I was slammed with a stark, radiating anger.
I’d been sweeping up some of the mess left behind by the resanding of the long countertop, again looking for something to keep my idle hands busy.
Knowing if I kept still for too long I might go insane.
My mouth dropped open when a woman stormed into my restaurant. All bristling fire and animosity.
She wore jeans, boots, and a flowy, whimsical blouse. Her blonde hair had been darkened underneath and curled into long waves, the woman beautiful in an earthy, natural way, aged by the faint traces of smile wrinkles at the edges of her mouth.
But her eyes.
Her eyes were warm and sincere, even though they were raging mad.
Sage.
My heart clutched.
This was Rex’s mother.
She crossed her arms over her chest and looked me up and down. “Well, you must be Rynna Dayne.”
I set the broom and pan aside. I tried to straighten myself out, to keep myself from falling apart, my voice shaking when I finally spoke. “I am. You must be Jenny Gunner.”
Still, her name tripped on my tongue.
Standing there, she seemed to war with something, and she blew out a strained breath from her nose and lifted her chin when she came to whatever conclusion she’d been looking for. Some of that anger slipped away. “I wish we were meetin’ under different circumstances,” she said. “Honestly, I came over here thinking I was gonna knock a little sense into you for breaking my boy’s heart, but from where I’m standing, looks to me like you’re suffering from that breaking, too.”
I choked out a laugh. Wow. She was . . . something. Confident and brazen and sweet. Country to the bone. So much like the women I’d been surrounded with all my years growing up.
I forced myself to smile, though it came out weak. “Yeah . . . I think I’m dealing with a bit of a heart breaking.”
A bit.
My stomach tumbled with the shards of jagged, broken glass that coated my insides, gouging into my flesh. Deeper and deeper with each breath.
It was a constant, excruciating pain.
She cocked her head. “So, what’s the problem then?”
That choked laugh turned into a cry. “What’s the problem?” My head shook, and I blinked at her through the motes that floated through the haze of light streaming in through the windows. “Rex is married. His wife is at his house right now. What kind of person would I be if I stood in the way of that?”
I went back to the same justification I’d been trying to feed myself, the rationale that they might be better with Janel. All week, I’d been trying to persuade myself maybe it was meant to be. That it was best if I walked away.