“Maybe I am. You gave up on your marriage easily enough.”
“Hey, that wasn’t me that made that decision. That was Bex.”
“Because you won’t take her calls. You won’t go speak to her. You’ve made her think you don’t want her.”
“I don’t.”
“I’m not so sure. The way you’ve been running around like a bear with a sore head ever since you two had that argument. I think you’re just too stubborn to say sorry.”
“Sorry for what?”
“For making her think you’ve been using her.”
“I have been using her.”
“And for treating her like your slave instead of your equal.”
“Hang on. I never treated her like a slave.”
“Sure did bark orders at her, though, didn’t you? Didn’t bother correcting her when she found out everyone had been fired.”
“Wasn’t my fault Ernesto forged my signature.”
“No, but it is your responsibility to fix things.”
“Like taking the check for her and giving it to Eddie and Catherine? That kind of thing.”
“Hey, she didn’t want your money and told me to give it to them. What was I supposed to do?”
“Talk to me about it.”
“That’s what I’m doing right now.”
“Concentrate on your boat.”
“I touched a nerve, didn’t I?”
“What are you trying to do? Piss me off?”
“Make you see sense. The pair of you are so stubborn it makes my blood boil. She’s determined to see you as a coldhearted asshole who can’t love anyone and uses everyone around him.”
“She’s not wrong.”
He puts the glue down, leaning back and stretching his hands above his head. “So you don’t love Alicia? You never had any feelings for Bex? Only I saw the way you looked at her, the way you talked to her. I’ve never seen you act like that ever before. What was it? Manipulation?”
“Something like that.”
“And you think she was only in it for the money? Guess what, knucklehead. She told me to give the check to Catherine and Eddie, remember? Said she didn’t want your money.”
“Still wants the annulment, though. I see you’ve got the petition next to you.”
“That’s right. She wants it because she thinks you want it. You want it because you think she does. You can be a stubborn son of a bitch at times, Hunter. Why not call her? Say sorry. See if you can give things another go. I can see that you want to.”
“It’s too late for that. I’m going to Rome with Alicia. We’ll start again there.”
“And if this plan of yours works, you won’t have to. You’ll be able to stay here. Wouldn’t it be good to keep Alicia in the school she knows?”
“Where she was being bullied?”