Chapter 22

Andre

I set my phone down with a smile. Was this what love really felt like? All the times I told myself I was in love, it never felt like it did with Joelle. Not with Emma or any of the women I was with before her. They all wanted more from me. More money, more time, more of a commitment.

Joelle fit. She wasn’t demanding I change or looking for me to be someone other than who I was. She wanted what was best for me and wasn’t afraid to share ideas that would help me get there.

It seemed so ridiculous that I didn’t think to buy a used lawnmower for Gail and Carson to use, but I was focused on long term. Eventually, I would need a new piece of equipment. Investing in my company was important to me, but I could do it slowly.

And Joelle helped me to see that.

I wanted to thank her properly, including telling her I loved her.

Shit, I was nervous. I’d never made a production out of telling a woman how I felt, which was significant. Joelle was different, from the first time I saw her. And she deserved to know that. To know I not only wanted her to stay in MacKellar Cove, but I wanted to support her the way she’d supported me. I wanted to help her to live out her dreams.

Which started with encouraging her and finding out how her meeting with Omar went. I didn’t ask much about it in advance, and she didn’t offer much. That was all on me. I freaked out when I heard she was thinking of staying. I didn’t handle it well at all. But I was past that. We were good. I loved her, and I was pretty sure she felt the same, and we would figure things out as we got to know each other more.

I took the steaks I bought out of the fridge and put them in a glass container. I mixed up a simple marinade and poured it over the top, then covered the container and slid it back into the fridge. I had everything ready to cook dinner when we got back to my place.

“Wish me luck, Molly,” I told her, scratching under her chin.

She meowed at me, bumping my hand with her head when I rubbed her ears.

“I’m going to tell Joelle I love her tonight. I hope she feels the same.”

“Meow,” was Molly’s reply.

“I love you, too, Molly.”

“Meow, meow meow.”

I smiled and picked her up, snuggling her close for a minute before I set her on the couch. She sat on the arm and meowed as I walked out, a friendly, encouraging meow.

That’s what I told myself.

I was a little early leaving, but I was anxious to see Joelle. I tried to go slow, but I was still ten minutes early when I parked outside the Inn.

I closed my door and jogged up the stairs, pausing when a couple hurried outside with anxious looks thrown over their shoulders.

As soon as I stepped inside, I understood the looks. Loud voices shouted from somewhere I couldn’t see. Maybe the dining room? I couldn’t hear most of what they said, but I caught ~obligation~, ~wedding~, and ~demand~.

Ouch. I winced as I made my way past the dining room, where the shouting was louder. I didn’t know who was getting yelled at, but it was not going their way. I also didn’t recognize the voices, which meant it wasn’t anyone I knew. Thankfully.

I knocked softly on Joelle’s door, hoping I wouldn’t disturb the argument. Not that they seemed to care about who heard them, but I did not want to be dragged into someone else’s family drama.

Joelle didn’t answer the door, so I knocked a little louder. I tried the nob, but it was locked. I saw her car outside, and she said she’d be ready in an hour. Maybe she was in the shower? Or walking around the property.

I backtracked from her door, tiptoeing past the dining room door. I was almost to the front room when I heard Joelle’s name shouted inside that room.

“What the hell?” I asked out loud.

I turned back to the dining room, wondering what in the hell was going on. She said her mom was controlling, but the berating coming from the other side of that door was a hundred times worse than controlling. It was borderline abusive.

“Andre,” Sebastian said from behind me.

I faced him, knowing my anger showed on my face. “What the hell is going on in there?”

“It’s family business.” Sebastian tried to move between me and the dining room, as if he was going to keep me from going in there.

“What does that mean? You’re going to let whoever that is speak to Joelle like that?”

“It’s none of my business, Andre. Just like it’s none of yours.”

“Joelle is my business. And if someone’s going to speak to her that way, I’m going to put a stop to it.”

“Her fiancé is in there with her.”

“Her what?” I had to have heard him wrong. Joelle wasn’t engaged. She would have told me.

Sebastian sighed. “This is why I told you not to get involved with her. The day she arrived here was supposed to be her wedding day.”

“No. You’re lying. Why would you tell me that now? After weeks of being together. After I fell… No. I don’t believe you.”

Sebastian stepped toward me, but I was done listening to him.

I brushed him off and turned toward the dining room. I shoved the door open and scanned the room. Joelle sat on the far side of the room, alone at a table for two. Tears ran down her cheeks. An open ring box sat in front of her with a diamond inside that I could tell from twenty feet away was pretty fucking stunning.

And nowhere close to anything I’d ever be able to afford.

“Excuse me, but this is a private conversation,” a woman growled at me.

I tore my gaze from Joelle to the woman closer to me. She was definitely Joelle’s mother. They had the same nose and lips, but where Joelle was always smiling, her mother wore a sour expression. She looked down on me, even though she was a few inches shorter than I was. She had an air of wealth around her, one I’d never gotten from Joelle, although I’d never seen the ring.

“You have no right to speak to her like you have been,” I said, standing to my full height as I faced her mother.

She huffed. “I will speak to my daughter however I see fit. You have no say in anything that happens here.”

“Andre,” Joelle said softly.

I looked over at her, seeing the regret and pain in her gaze. “Are you okay?”

A man stepped between us, blocking my view of Joelle.

I looked up at him, taking in the expensive suit that was likely custom-made, the cufflinks that sparkled in the afternoon sun, and his perfectly styled hair. Everything about him screamed of privilege and pretension.

“You will not address my fiancé. She is not yours to concern yourself with.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. It was probably the wrong moment, but I laughed. “Joelle is absolutely mine to concern myself with. And I have no idea who the hell you are, or who you think you are, but you should be ashamed of yourself for letting her mother speak to her the way she has.”

“You have no knowledge of the situation, and I suggest you absolve yourself of any continued interaction,” he said, stepping closer to me.

“Are you going to throw me out?”

“If I must.”

I rolled my eyes. I could take the asshole down with one swing. And I would, if that was what it took.

“Andre, it’s fine.” Joelle’s voice was small, and not just because the asshole was still between us. She was giving up. On me, on us, on herself.

“What? You can’t be serious,” I exclaimed.

“Thomas and my mother have come to take me home.”

“You’re going back to DC with them? Why? I thought…”

The room fell silent, the realization of what I didn’t say sinking in for her mother and fiancé.

“Joelle, how could you? You engaged in an affair with this…” Her mother looked at me like I was the worst possible piece of garbage she’d ever seen. “With him? When you had Thomas waiting for you? Joelle, this is unacceptable! You risked everything for someone unworthy to be in my presence.”

“I’ll go,” I said.

Her mother continued her tirade, the fiancé jumping in, but Joelle stayed silent.

I backed out of the room, pushing the door open behind me. Before it closed, I caught Joelle’s eye.

She watched me. Gone was the woman I loved. The woman who shared her thoughts and defended everyone. Gone was the spark and the challenge and the brightness I saw in her.

She wasn’t my Joelle anymore. She was his.

She tore her gaze from mine and set her jaw. She was done with me.

I let the door close. Sebastian was not far, waiting for me. I brushed past him, not wanting to hear he was right or I should have listened or any other bullshit he felt the need to tell me.

I was done. Done with Joelle, done with love, done with all of it.

What the hell was the point in dating if every woman I ended up with was going to destroy me?

I went home and slammed my way inside. Molly meowed, then ran to hide somewhere. I felt bad for half a second, but even Molly couldn’t make me feel something more than pain.

I yanked open the fridge to grab a beer and spotted the steaks I was marinating. The steaks I was going to cook for me and Joelle so I could tell her I loved her.

Fucking love.

I grabbed the dish and chucked it into the trash. The glass broke, the sound snapping something inside me.

I stalked through my apartment. I grabbed the flowers I bought her and threw them on top of the steaks. I took out the other food I bought, including an expensive bottle of wine, and trashed those, too. I yanked the sheets off my bed and threw them on the floor. I threw out everything that reminded me of her.

Then I grabbed the rest of the beer in my fridge and dropped to the couch. I opened a beer and drained it, then turned on the TV and opened another one. And another one. And another.

Until I didn’t think about Joelle.

* * *

I woke up on the couch, surrounded by beer bottles. I felt like shit, but the headache and sour stomach were so much better than the ache in my chest.

Fuck. It hurt to think about Joelle, but of course, she was the first thing on my damn mind. She lied to me. She slept with me when she had a fiancé at home. I was a vacation fuck, someone to go back and tell her rich friends about. The gardener she fooled into thinking she actually cared.

I was such a fucking idiot.

Molly meowed from somewhere to the side, and I called for her. She chirped and came closer, stopping before she got to me.

“It’s okay, Molly. I’m sorry I scared you last night.”

She meowed softly, then sniffed my hand. She backed away like it was covered in something gross.

I groaned. “I guess I need to shower.”

I wobbled when I stood, but I kept my balance. I went to the bathroom and tossed my clothes toward the hamper. The shower was hot, but not hot enough to burn away my memories of Joelle.

I got out of the shower and found clothes to wear before I went back to the couch. I had no interest in leaving the apartment and no reason to. Joelle didn’t want me, and I was done with the outside world for a little while.

I watched shitty TV about stupid people doing even stupider stuff. It played through lunch and into the late afternoon when someone pounded on my door.

“Andre! Open the door or I’m using my key. Andre!” Landon shouted from the other side of the door.

I hauled my ass off the couch and opened the door before he broke it down. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Me? You’re asking what’s wrong with me? What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Nothing,” I growled before reclaiming my spot on the couch.

“Then why do you look like shit? And what is that smell?”

“Fuck you. I showered today.”

“Maybe, but your trash can didn’t. What is…” He trailed off, and I realized he was peering into my trash.

“Go away.”

“What happened?”

“Joelle’s fucking engaged.”

“She’s what?” Landon barked.

“I went to pick her up for dinner yesterday and her mother and fiancé were there. Taking her back to DC.”

“What did she say?”

“She told me to leave.”

“No.”

“Yeah, because if she begged me to stay, I’d be sitting here right now with your ugly face to look at.”

Landon sighed heavily. “Fuck. I didn’t see that one coming.”

“Yeah, well, I’m sure she’ll get a good laugh with her rich friends when she tells them about the stupid gardener she fucked.”

“She’s rich?”

I glared at my former best friend. “That’s what you take from this?”

Landon snickered. “Sorry. You’re right. I should have been focused on you calling yourself stupid. Do you want me to tell you how smart you are?”

I flipped him off.

“Do you have anything to drink?” He opened my fridge, then slammed it closed. “I need to take this trash out. I’m going to throw up. What the hell is in here?”

“The dinner I was going to make her. And the flowers I bought her. And everything else that made me think of her.”

Landon groaned when he lifted the bag, the glass clinking inside. “Did you throw away glass?”

“Yep.”

“Jesus,” he muttered. The bag rustled in his hand. “I’ll be right back.” He grabbed my keys from the table at the door, then walked out.

I was tempted to lock him out, but it was nice to know he understood. It also made me realize what a shitty friend I’d been since he and Reegan split. I never took out his trash or told him to clean up or I don’t know. Whatever the hell he was doing by being there.

I hit play on the show and zoned out until he came back in. He moved shit around in my fridge, then closed the door and joined me on the couch.

“What are you doing here?” I asked him after a little while.

“I came to make sure you weren’t dead.”

“Why would you think I was dead?”

“Because you didn’t show up for your clients today. I figured—”

“Fuck!” I jumped up. “It’s fucking Wednesday. I had a full day. Son-of-a-bitch. What time is it?”

“Your work is done. Sit down.”

I glared at him. “What the hell does that mean?”

“It means your employees took care of it. When they showed up to get the equipment you bought for them, they saw that you hadn’t taken your mower. They asked me about it, and I gave them the keys. They split the work and helped each other out.”

“How the hell did they know what to do?”

“They’re smart.”

“Fuck. And I dropped everything because of Joelle.”

“That’s what happens when you get your heart shredded.”

“Yeah.”

Landon was quiet for a long moment. “I’m sorry she turned out to be someone different than we believed. I thought she was really good for you.”

“Thanks. Me, too.”

Landon nodded, punching me lightly on the thigh.

“Why did you wait all day to make sure I wasn’t dead?”

“Store was busy. I figured Molly had your carcass to eat if you were dead.”

“So really, you’re here to check on her. Because you love her like I said you would.”

He snorted. “Fuck you. And yeah, maybe.”

I laughed. It felt good. Rusty, but good.

I lost Joelle, but I still had Landon. That was going to have to be okay. It was okay. I had Molly, my best friend, my parents and siblings, and some friends in town. I would get over Joelle eventually.