Page 49 of Mateo & Nicole
“Nikki,” he said, reaching a hand out to her. When she gave a short shake of her head and wrapped her arms around herself, he dropped his hand to his side. The disappointment slithered inside him like a venomous snake, ready to strike.
Everything was okay. He was getting riled up over nothing. Just because she was having a bad day didn’t mean it had anything to do with them. She would have told him, right? Nikki didn’t play games. It was one of the things he liked about her. She was upfront about everything.
She heaved a sigh and finally lifted her gaze to meet his. “What were you up to today?”
Was that all? She wanted to know about his day? He blew out a nervous breath and chuckled. “I ran some errands in town. Had to drop off a few things at the post office. Picked up some feed from the store.” He wasn’t going to talk about the flowers or his visit with Caroline. There was no use in sharing that part of his day. Mateo rubbed the back of his neck, offering her a boyish grin. “I picked you some flowers.”
There was a flicker of interest in her eyes as she stared at him, but it quickly died down into smoldering embers of what might have been. “That’s it? That’s all that you did?”
He almost felt like she wanted him to say something more. But that was ridiculous, right? She didn’t know about his visit with Caroline, and if he had his way, she never would. Mateo shrugged. “That’s it. Nothing to write home about. You wanna see the flowers?”
She huffed, shaking her head as she muttered something that sounded almost like, “I should have known better.”
“What?” he asked, moving close enough to grab her hand, but she side-stepped him, refusing to let him touch her. “Nikki, what’s wrong?”
Her scowl knocked him off balance. “Nothing,” she snapped. “It’s been a long day. I’m exhausted. I have to go fix dinner soon, and Paxton wanted to go for a walk. I have to go.”
“I can go with you?—”
“No,” she snapped, his head whipping backward at her tone. “No,” she tried, softer this time. “I told him it could just be him and me. Mother-son time, you know?”
He tried to ignore the pain of rejection. They were still their own little family, no matter how much time he’d been spending with them. Occasionally, they were going to want their own time. Still, Mateo couldn’t shake the feeling that something had gone terribly wrong today and he needed to do something to help.
Letting her go right now wasn’t something he was prepared to do. This time, he reached for her and captured both of her hands in his own. “Hey,” he said softly, waiting for her to lift her gaze to meet his. When she finally gave him what he sought, he pushed through the ache and focused on what he could do to help. “You know I’m here for you, right?”
She blinked rapidly and a flush crept across her skin, her eyes filling with emotion. But she looked away before he had a chance to get a full grasp on her reaction to his words. “Thank you, Mateo.” Her words were barely above a whisper. “But I’m fine. I don’t need you to rescue me or do anything for me right now. I’ve had a bad day, and I just want to spend some time with my son.”
He opened his mouth to argue, but Paxton’s voice drifted toward them from the upper level.
“Mom? Are you ready?”
Mateo’s eyes landed on the boy, who was now dressed in his boots, hat, and pair of jeans. He looked like he belonged on the ranch. Heck, he looked just like Mateo had when he was a kid. Mateo grinned at the boy, and Paxton grinned back.
“Are you coming, too?”
Before Mateo could accept the invite, Nikki jumped in. “Mateo is busy this afternoon. He’s got some work to do in his office, kiddo.”
Mateo frowned at Nikki. She was pushing him out. It couldn’t be clearer than it was at that moment.
No. He had to remind himself. She’d said herself that she wanted to spend time with her son. It was normal for a mother to want that—alone time with her boy. Mateo swallowed back the desire to ask her if he’d done something wrong. This was just his lack of self-confidence. Apparently, he hadn’t gotten over what Caroline had done to him.
It begged the question: had there been signs? Had he missed something when he’d been with Caroline that would have tipped him off that she wasn’t interested in him anymore?
Nikki’s eyes flickered with pain, and she pulled her hands from his grasp with a sad smile. “We’ll be back in time for me to prepare supper. It’s just a nature walk.”
Paxton skipped down the stairs, his boots thunking against them with each step he took. “Bye-bye, Mateo. See you soon.”
Mateo turned, watching them exit out the front door. She hadn’t even asked for her flowers. He hadn’t gotten a chance to give them to her and tell her he loved her. Did she even care?
He shut his eyes just as the front door did. He couldn’t allow his insecurities to get the better of him. He was better than that.Theywere better than that. People had bad days. He’d had one, hadn’t he?
Mateo rolled his shoulders and blew out a calming breath. This was just a bump in the road. One bad day didn’t mean anything in the grand scheme of things. He nodded more to himself than anything else.
Seeing Caroline today must have done a number on him. He was second-guessing everything. It wasn’t fair to Nikki for him to overreact.
At least that was what he kept telling himself as he slipped back to his office. He had every intention of getting back to work, but that didn’t happen. He ended up staring at the paperwork on his desk, unseeing, his thoughts shifting to the events that led him to this moment—the events that occurred nearly ten years ago.
He couldn’t recall a single thing that could have clued him into Caroline’s plans on their wedding day. There were no signs he could think of that he’d been blind enough to ignore. The way Nikki was behaving was nothing like the way Caroline had behaved. And yet he couldn’t help but worry—not that Nikki was seeing someone else. He was worried she was pulling away and would end up choosing someone else over him.
