Page 28 of Don’t You Dare Marry Me (Love in Massachusetts #3)

twenty-two

“Hello?” Abagail frowned as she lifted the phone to her ear.

What the hell was Estelle calling her for? She’d spent the last fifteen hours trying to erase Warren and Chaya from her memory and she’d completely failed to do so.

“Abagail.” Estelle’s marginally warm tones reached her ears, but they also carried with them a fake tonality that set Abagail on the edge of her seat.

Instead of tensing, she purposely relaxed herself into the couch and crossed an ankle over her knee. She wasn’t going to let whatever was coming bother her, and she was pretty damn sure that it was going to be a whole lot coming at her.

“What can I do for you, Estelle?” Abagail already knew what was happening.

Warren had called his mother, and she was now calling Abagail to check out everything that Warren had told her.

And then there was going to be a fight. Either that or Warren had actually kept his mouth shut for once and Abagail was going to be asked for money.

“Warren said you were at the Cape this week.”

Check one for the former. Abagail clenched her jaw and had to work hard to keep from tightening her grip around the cell phone.

She didn’t want to accidentally break it with her frustration.

“I am. He showed up uninvited to my home here. I told him he wasn’t welcome this week.

” And I’ll be changing the locks as soon as possible , Abagail added in her head.

She wasn’t about to tell Estelle that. She really needed to make sure that only the right people had the keys to the locks on her property.

“I’m so sorry about that. He thought he’d take Chaya there to get away. All the wedding planning is stressing her out.”

Abagail pressed her lips together tightly at that one. She had zero comment on the matter. Well, that was a lie. She had a whole lot to say, but she didn’t want to actually say it. Not to Estelle anyway.

“He said you were with… Nicola?”

Oh there was the question that Abagail knew was coming.

And she’d already started to work on a way to answer it.

One that wouldn’t implicate anything between them.

The look in Nicola’s gaze last night when Warren had finally left was one of fear and trembling.

As much as she’d wanted Warren to know in the beginning that this was entirely based out of revenge, it was absolutely clear that she didn’t want that now.

“Nicola is here, yes.” Abagail brushed her fingers over her knee, as if there was lint there that she needed to get rid of it. When the energy was too much, she stood up and paced the den back and forth and then stopped at the window.

Nicola was outside, standing on the beach with her back to the house. The curls of her hair moved in the breeze as she stared out at the sea. What was she thinking about? Was she worried? Pained? Abagail froze on the spot, wondering and worrying all at the same time.

“What’s she doing there? The engagement is off.”

Abagail hummed. She wished she could see Estelle’s face. It’d be easier to detect the nuances of what wasn’t being said, but the tone of her voice and the slight waver under her words lent quite a bit to the understanding Abagail needed.

Estelle hadn’t fully wanted to make this phone call.

But there wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do for Warren.

Which was his biggest downfall.

“The engagement is off, yes. And now Warren is engaged to Chaya and planning a wedding with a woman he’s been officially in a relationship with for no more than a few weeks.” Abagail bit the inside of her cheek. She was straying very close to what she didn’t want to say.

“He and Chaya have a long history?—”

“Yes, they do.” Abagail continued to watch Nicola from behind, the way she stood so still frightened her.

This wasn’t the Nicola that Abagail had come to know in the last few weeks.

This one was despondent and without the flair of attitude that Abagail adored.

“But that doesn’t mean he can treat his ex-fiancée like dirt either. ”

Was that too close to the truth Abagail was avoiding? Well, screw that. Nicola deserved better.

“He’s been chasing her around and making her life miserable.

She has nowhere to go, she’s homeless and living out of her car, and she’s trying to support her family.

Warren left her in a lurch, Estelle. Because your son has no compassion toward anyone but himself.

” Abagail crossed her arms. Her breath caught in her throat when Nicola turned around, seemingly staring directly at her through the window.

“They’re no longer together, Abagail. She’s not a part of this family anymore.”

Abagail agreed with that sentiment, although she’d also state that Nicola was never actually a part of the family to begin with. Warren and she had never married, and no formal connection had ever been drawn up. “That doesn’t give him the right to trample all over her.”

“Warren’s a good kid.”

“He’s not a kid anymore.” Abagail swallowed the lump in her throat, Nicola still staring directly at her. “And he needs to grow up.”

“You need to send her back where she came from.”

Abagail snorted loudly, unable to control herself anymore. “Where she came from? That’d be your son’s apartment, Estelle. He broke up with her and literally dumped her on the streets.”

“No, I mean back to—” Estelle stopped.

Did she even know where Nicola was from? What state she’d been born in or where she’d grown up? Did she even know that Nicola had hardly any family around? Something that both Estelle and Warren should be able to relate to.

“She’s from Amherst,” Abagail supplied, raising her hand to the back of her head and scraping her dull nails across her scalp. “And if you can’t even tell me that after they were together for years, I’m starting to think Warren doesn’t fall that far from the tree.”

“I think you’re barking up the wrong tree.” There was venom there that Abagail hadn’t been expecting.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re sleeping with her!”

Ah, so Warren wasn’t as stupid as Abagail had hoped.

She pressed her lips together tightly. She hadn’t anticipated the accusation so directly.

She probably should have, but she’d been lost in what Nicola was struggling with instead.

Finally, Nicola turned away from Abagail and started to walk toward the water’s edge.

“You’ve never cared who I’ve been with before.” Abagail wasn’t going to deny it, but she also wasn’t going to confirm it. “Why would you start to care now?”

“This is ruining our family’s good name.”

Abagail choked on that. Their family? They’d never truly been a family except that they shared Warren by blood and Abagail held all the family money that Estelle wanted access to. She’d honored her late brother’s wishes, but she wasn’t going to stand there and take their abuse either.

“Our family’s good name isn’t in question,” Abagail seethed out the words.

“And you’d best do to remember that.” She hung up before she could say anything else that would get her in deeper water.

Estelle tried to call her back, but Abagail sent it straight to voicemail.

In fact, she turned her phone off entirely and dropped it onto the table next to the couch.

Straightening her back, Abagail closed her eyes and listened to the silence in the house.

It felt thick, in the same way the air feels when a storm is impending and there’s absolutely no escape.

Nicola was still out by the water, and she’d said nothing to Abagail all morning, even when they’d shared a cup of coffee together in the kitchen and Abagail had tried to start a conversation.

A wedge had been hammered between them, and Abagail hated that feeling.

But more than that, she mistrusted it.

Warren had done a number and he’d barely even been in the house for more than twenty minutes before Abagail had booted him out.

She didn’t want him anywhere near Nicola if she could handle it.

She wanted Warren as far away from her life as possible—especially after that call with Estelle.

What were they thinking? That they could bully her into bullying Nicola?

Like mother like son.

Abagail didn’t even have words for what Warren had said and done the day before.

What he’d probably done when no one else was present.

Abagail shuddered at the thought. He wasn’t the person she thought he was. She’d seen the tendencies in him over the years, but she’d never been so blatantly confronted by his abusive manner before. Not that she would have been. She largely kept as far away from the family as she possibly could.

How had he even become that way?

How could he think half of what he did was acceptable?

If there was one thing for certain that Abagail knew now, it was that Nicola wasn’t perfect.

Which, if she thought about it, she intuitively knew.

But she’d started to fool herself into thinking that they were perfectly matched.

But this… this wasn’t that. Nicola came with a past and history and relationships—something that Abagail certainly didn’t come with.

And it was something that Abagail had never wanted.

Stepping outside into the breeze, Abagail left the house and walked the same path that Nicola had taken earlier.

She trailed through the tall grass and the sand mixed with stone.

She found Nicola with her bare toes digging into the sand, and her gaze off in the distance.

Enough was enough already. Abagail breathed in the scent of the fresh salty water, the air as it wrapped its lovingly cold arms around her, and she did the exact same for Nicola.

The silence was killing her.

She stepped up behind Nicola, resting her chin on Nicola’s shoulder, and hugged her.

Nicola instantly relaxed back into Abagail’s embrace, but still she said nothing.

Abagail closed her eyes and listened to the sound of Nicola’s breathing along with the far-off call of the seagulls.

This wasn’t what their week was supposed to be.

It should have been fun, full of lots of fucking, laughs, drinks, and everything that might relax the two of them. Instead, they were thrown into a turmoil that they might deserve but neither of them wanted.

“He won’t be coming back here,” Abagail murmured into Nicola’s ear. “Not now, not ever.”

She’d already made that decision. Warren wasn’t going to be allowed back into this house. It would be a sacred space for the both of them, and she wouldn’t let his anger and abuse taint it again.

“You shouldn’t make promises that you can’t keep.”

“I can keep this one. And I will.”

Nicola sighed heavily, and then she turned in Abagail’s arms. They faced each other, toe to toe, and Abagail deeply felt the pain in Nicola’s gaze.

“I didn’t know, Nic.” Abagail reached up and cupped Nicola’s cheek, brushing her thumb just under her eye and then across her lips. “I didn’t know what he was really like.”

Nicola’s lips pulled thin, and she glanced down at something between them. “You don’t know the half of it.”

“I’m sure I don’t.” Abagail raised Nicola’s chin back up so they could look at each other. “Whether I ever do or not doesn’t make what he did right. Nothing will ever make him right.”

Nicola’s lips quirked slightly, and there was a spark of light that Abagail had been missing all morning. Nicola was nothing but resilient. This woman had resilience in spades. How had she ever been able to manage that?

“He is an asshat, isn’t he?” Nicola laughed lightly.

“He is.” Abagail continued to stroke Nicola’s cheek and lips, keeping an eye on her.

It felt as though she was finally pulling the real Nicola back to the surface, preventing her from drowning completely.

And maybe that’s all this was. Maybe Nicola had been plunged into the depths of something she didn’t want to face, and now she was finally breaking through the water.

“I promise I won’t let him hurt you,” Abagail whispered.

She leaned in, pressing their mouths together in a beautifully tender kiss.

Abagail never would have believed she had it in her to do that until now.

But Nicola responded to physical affection like this.

She’d seen that several times in the last few days, and now again, she witnessed it.

The rest of Nicola’s body seemed to melt, the tension in her shoulders washing away, and her body listing forward into Abagail’s.

Abagail held onto her tightly, wrapping her arm around Nicola’s back firmly before sliding her hand to the back of Nicola’s head and deepening the embrace.

She wasn’t seeking more, and she wasn’t wanting Nicola to give in to anything that she was uncomfortable with.

But she did want her Nicola back. The fun-loving, energetic soul that Abagail had come to admire.

That was the true Nicola.