I thought Hunter was telling the truth about Carmen, especially since I had seen a text from her about him moving his stuff out. But for a few long seconds, I held my breath and wondered if maybe Hunter had been lying about that too. If so, that would destroy any feelings I had for him.
“Oh,” Brad said while staring at Hunter. “He broke off the engagement three weeks ago? I’m sorry, I didn’t know. I…”
Suddenly Brad’s eyes swung to me.
“Really? No, I didn’t know that either. Okay, I’ll tell him. Thanks. Bye.”
“What is it?” I asked.
Hunter sat back down and slumped his shoulders. “Erica, I can explain…”
“Why?” I demanded, looking from one man to the other. “What did she say?”
Brad tossed the phone onto the couch. “Carmen said the reason she was calling was to go over the marketing information for Hunter’s jeweler friend. She has six pages of ideas to go over.”
“What? How does Carmen know about…” I gazed over at Hunter, who was looking at his shoes. “She’s your marketingguy, isn’t she?”
“I told you she’s like Rain Man with numbers,” Hunter said with a hopeful smile. “She can analyze a dozen marketing plans and come up with the best return on investment, down to a specific dollar amount spent on every day to slowly build momentum.”
“You involved her in my business without telling me?” I demanded. “You’ve been talking to her this whole time?”
“She’s the best at what she does,” Hunter replied simply. “It was painful to ask her for a favor after I had broken things off, but I did it for you. Because I wanted the best for your business. You begged me to ask my marketing guy for help…”
“No, don’t you dare turn this around and blame me,” I snapped. “If I had known your marketing guy was yourex-fiancée,I would have said no thank you!”
“Sounds like he wanted an excuse to keep in touch with her,” Brad said dryly. “Just like how he invested in your business as an excuse to keep in touch withyou.”
“No, you’re twisting what…” Hunter looked around helplessly. “Erica, please. This isn’t what you think. You have to see that, right?”
All I could think about was two days ago, when I had asked Hunterpoint blankif he had talked to Carmen recently. And he responded by saying he hadn’t talked to her since he broke things off. He had lied right to my face.
If he had lied about that, what else was he hiding from me?
“Get out of my house,” Brad said. “I don’t want you here, and I definitely don’t want your money.”
Hunter ignored him and stared up at me. “Erica. Please look at me. Youknowme, you know I—”
“Idon’tknow you,” I said, words slicing through the air like a knife. “Maybe I thought I did, but I was wrong. Go back to your hotel, whichever one you were staying at before coming here and lying to me.”
Hunter stared at me for several heartbeats. I thought he would argue with me. Part of mewantedhim to argue, to put up a fight.
But then he grabbed his jeans and pulled them on under the cover of the blanket, then pulled on his shirt. He rose, looming over me, my lover and long-lost crush. There was a world of pain and despair in his eyes.
Then he went outside, got in his car, and drove away without a word, just like he had done five years ago.
40
Hunter
How had I fucked things up this badly?
Erica and I had gone from having our first fight about who was going to move where, to Brad discovering our secret, and then to seemingly breaking up completely. Ten minutes was all it took to go from bliss to destruction.
I shouldn’t have lied to her about contacting Carmen, but I thought Erica would be weird about me soliciting help with her business from my ex. That was a big, glaring mistake. Another was the way I had phrased my support of her business itself. She was extremely sensitive aboutYours Forever Gemstones, and needed complete, undying support. It was what gave her confidence in the entire venture. And when I blurted out that I had invested in it partly as an excuse to stay close to her, it shattered all that confidence like cheap glass.
“Stupid,” I muttered to myself while driving away. “Stupid, Hunter. You’re such a fucking idiot.”
Fleeing from the house felt just as it had five years ago. It was worse this time, since I had found a way to piss everyone off. My friendship with Brad was over, no doubt. His relationship with his sister might be irreconcilably damaged as well.