Page 36 of Right Next Door (Stone Family #3)

He nods but doesn’t give anything more. Not that I expect it. He’s quiet. Lives in his head a lot. So, I drop it and lean back in my chair. With everything out in the open, I throw out an idea. “Now that you three know everything, what would you say to a dinner with all of us and Nicole?”

I’m met with agreements and pull my phone out of my pocket to text Nicole when I notice a missed call and voice mail from Marianne, which is weird because while we’re friends, we don’t call or text each other without reason, and my pulse stutters at all the possible reasons rushing through my mind.

“Back in a minute,” I tell my kids then head outside, where I settle under the cover of the awning to listen to the voice mail.

“Hey, Ian,” Marianne starts quietly. “I wanted to let you know that Clara and I are here with Nicole at her store. There was a…confrontation today. Bryce showed up and…”

I don’t hear anything else as anger sends blood rushing in my ears.

If that piece of shit hurt her, I will fucking murder him.

I shove my phone into my pocket before the message is even over, and I’m moving without having consciously thought of it, spinning on my heel to stalk back inside the diner.

“Everything okay?” June asks, probably noting my thunderous expression.

“No, something’s come up with Nicole.” I drop a credit card on the table. “I gotta go.”

Jasper’s brow creases in concern. “What happened?”

“I don’t know yet, but I need to get to her.” I’m already heading for the exit when Jay calls out behind me.

“Go get her, Pops!”

I lift a hand in acknowledgment but don’t look back. Right now, my only thought is getting to Nicole.

And I’m barely aware of my surroundings as I drive home, to my shop, to the bookstore that shares a wall with it, to the woman who owns my heart.

I don’t mean to, but I bang my hand on the back door of Chapter and Verse harder than I intended, and Clara opens it a few seconds later, eyes roving over me. “Hey, whoa. Chill out on the bear mode. You’re gonna make the situation worse.”

“I am chill.”

She barks out a laugh. “Chill like a feral animal with rabies. Seriously, take a few breaths before you go in there. She’s been through a lot.”

I grumble a litany of curses as I comb my fingers repeatedly through my hair, taking deliberate breaths, attempting to still my racing pulse. But it’s like putting a bull back in his cage after he’s seen the red cape.

“She’s physically okay,” Clara tells me. “He didn’t touch her.”

That only makes me feel marginally better. He can keep his fingers.

“More than anything, she’s embarrassed,” Clara says, ripping my goddamn heart out. “He made a big scene out front, screaming and yelling at her.”

“About what?” I lock my hands behind my head, squeezing my eyes shut as I remind myself that aggravated battery is a felony.

“You.”

I hunch over like she kicked me in the gut. This sorry excuse for a man verbally assaulted Nicole because of me. Over me .

Fuck it.

I could sell the shop to pay for lawyer’s fees.

I pivot, reaching for the door, but Clara catches my wrist. “Don’t you dare go after him. He is nothing. Don’t make your anger more important than your love for Nicole. She needs you.”

It takes a few moments, but her words sink in.

He is nothing.

And Nicole is everything.

I shake out my arms, my hands tingling from how tightly I had them curled in fists, but I force them straight now and inhale a deep breath. Clara rubs my shoulders like a boxer in the ring. “That’s it. You got it now. Go in there and get your girl.”

She pats my back twice, and I march down the hall to the main floor of the store.

When Marianne spies me, she whispers something to Nicole that has her raising her bloodshot eyes to me.

My old friend says something to me, but I don’t hear it, all of my focus on the woman curled up on the chair with used tissues strewn around her.

“Baby.” I kneel in front of her. “I’m so sorry.”

She falls into me, her face in my neck, tears wetting my shirt. For the second time in less than twenty-four hours, she’s crying, and as much as I hate to admit it, I wonder if this is worth it. Putting her through all this pain. Would it be easier if I let her go?

But then she winds her arms around me, clinging tight, and no. I could never let her go. Even if I wanted to, she wants me here with her. And I am nothing if not in service to her.

“I should have been here.” I kiss her head, her ear, pull her back to kiss her wet cheek and chapped lips. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here.”

“You couldn’t have done anything,” she says between sniffles, and I use my T-shirt to wipe her face dry. “You’re gonna have my snot all over you.”

“I don’t care.”

Her responding smile is wobbly, but it settles my wrecked nerves, nonetheless. When she’s breathing normally, I hold her face in my hands, stroking my thumbs over her cheekbones. “What happened?”

“I was opening the store, and Bryce showed up. He looked like he hadn’t slept at all, and he started yelling at me, demanding to know where I was all night, who I was with.

And then…” She slants her eyes away from me, and I know whatever it is, it’s gonna make me go apeshit.

“He saw your shirt—” she plucks at the Stone Ink tee I put her in this morning that is more like a dress on her “—and figured out I was with you.”

She drops her gaze to her hands, clutching at her long skirt.

The same one she wore yesterday, because I could give her a shirt to wear but not anything else.

“He got even more mad?” I guess, and when she nods, I release my gentle grip on her to move away.

The tingle in my hands is back. This time with a desire to strangle him. “What did he say?”

“That I cheated on him. People were all watching him as he screamed about me cheating on him.”

I growl and turn away, fighting with myself, knowing I should stay with Nicole but needing to go confront him. Let him say to my face what he dared to yell at her.

“He called me stupid.”

I whirl around to her. “He what ?”

With eyes as big as dinner plates, she stands, tugging on my hand, preventing me from fucking slamming through the wall like the Hulk and heading straight to him. “Please,” she begs, crying again. “Don’t leave.”

“He insulted you. On top of everything that son of bitch put you through, carrying on in front of our friends and neighbors, he’s going to insult you? No. No. I’m not gonna let that stand.”

“ Ian .”

I stop at her broken plea, and she presses her front to my back, her cheek against my shoulder blade, her hands on my waist. “If you go, you’ll only make it worse.”

I hang my head, clenching my fists at my sides. “I don’t know how else it can be worse.”

Images of my childhood flood my mind, memories of my belligerent father yelling at and insulting my mother. My good and kind mother who Nicole reminds me so much of. I couldn’t physically stand up to him then, but I can certainly stand up to the ghost of him now in Bryce fucking Kelly.

“He threatened my store,” she says so quietly I almost don’t hear her, and I circle around to face her.

“Say that again.”

“When my store got damaged in the hurricane a few years ago, he put his name on the loan note with me, so I could get the money. He’s just trying to scare me by bringing that up, but if you go fight with him, I know he will use it against me.”

I sigh, jaw sore from grinding my teeth so hard. “You can’t let him bully you.”

“And I can’t let you fight my battles.”

“The fuck I can’t.”

“Stop.” She pushes my hands off her and pulls her shoulders back, standing tall for the first time since I stormed in here.

“You need to stop. You can’t protect me all the time.

I appreciate that you want to, but you can’t be the one to make my decisions and fix things.

That’s the greatest gift you gave me.” She shuts her mouth, rolling her lips over her teeth like she’s trying to keep from crying, her chin trembling for a few moments.

Then her throat lifts on a swallow and she speaks, low but firm.

“You taught me no is a complete sentence. You taught me to ask for what I want. You taught me that I am in command of myself, so I am asking you not to confront him. I am telling you that I need to figure this out on my own. For once in my life!”

It’s only then she breaks, heaving out a ragged breath, tears rolling down her cheeks, and my heart cracks in two.

“I’m sorry,” I rasp, wrapping my arms around her middle, towing her into me. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what else to do. I can’t sit around while someone I love is hurting. I need to?—”

She wrenches back. “You love me?”

It takes a few seconds for her and my words to register. Then I shrug, because… “Of course I love you. I fucking love you, Nic, and I need to do something to help.”

The smile that shines through her tears knits the lacerations of my heart back together and kisses the bruises on my soul better.

She lays her head on my shoulder, her fingers digging into the muscles on either side of my spine.

“Then go home. You need to calm down, and I need time to figure out what I’m going to do. ”

“No.” I dip my chin down, my beard tangling with strands of her hair. “I’m not leaving you to face this alone.”

She laughs like I’m stupid. “I’m not facing this alone.” Leaning back, she slips her hands around my shoulders and up to my neck, sinking her fingers into my loose hair. “I know I have you, and you have me, but you showed me how strong I can be. So let me be strong.”

Well, when she puts it like that, how can I deny her?

She tugs me down to meet her lips, tasting of salt, and I gather the cotton of her skirt in my hands, pulling her up so she’s on her toes. Still, it’s not close enough. I speak all the words into her mouth that I can’t say out loud.

I’m proud of you.

I love you.

I want you in my life forever.

You are tattooed on my heart.

Carved in stone.

Then I let her go. To be mistress of herself.