Page 67 of Mateo & Nicole
“Can I, Mom?” Paxton asked. “Mateo says I’m good enough to start working with my own horse now. Right, Mateo?”
Nikki stiffened, not wanting to turn around to look the man she still loved in the eye.
This time his voice was close.
Tooclose.
It came right behind her left ear, and it set off a wave of goosebumps all across her arms. “Absolutely.”
Before she knew what was happening, Sophia was leading Paxton past her and Mateo toward the door.
Nikki spun to follow, but Mateo stepped into her path, his broad body cutting her off. She lifted her chin to meet those eyes, and the world all but fell away at her feet. “Sorry,” she mumbled, attempting to move past him. But he side-stepped again. She frowned. “What do you need, Mateo?”
He cleared his throat, and the Adam’s apple at his throat bobbed. “We need to talk.”
She shook her head. “No, we don’t. We both said everything we needed to.”
“I need to ask you one more question.”
Nikki dropped her gaze to a spot just over his shoulder. “Fine. What is it?”
“Do you love me?”
Against her will, her eyes darted to meet his. She’d never been a good liar, and she knew if she denied it, he’d know. It wasn’t even worth trying. “I don’t see what that has anything to do with?—”
He stepped into her, his voice huskier than before. “Do. You. Love. Me?”
Her throat dried up and closed all at once. She couldn’t breathe. This wasn’t fair. He’d plunged a knife into her chest, and now he was twisting it. “You know I do,” she rasped. “I think I always have.” Fury laced the last couple of words.
Mateo tilted his head, studying her.
Hot, angry tears burned her eyes, and she shook her head when he didn’t say anything more. “I have to go?—”
His arm reached out and he gently wrapped his fingers around her wrist, stopping her escape. “I’ve kept so many secrets from you,” he whispered. “So many secrets that I should have just shared. Then we wouldn’t be in this mess.”
She scoffed. “Yeah, like the fact that you were seeing Caroline.”
He flinched, and she almost felt guilty for hitting that nerve. “You were in communication with her too, were you not?”
Her brows lifted, and her face burned with guilt and indignation. “I was…” She gritted her teeth and looked away, attempting to pull her arm from his grasp. “Let me go, Mateo,” she begged. “Please.”
With his free hand, he reached out and traced a finger along her jaw. She didn’t even have the strength to pull her away.
“You’re right,” he said, and her heart sagged with pain. “I should have told you that Caroline was trying to reconnect. But it was very much one-sided.”
She jerked her chin away from his touch with a huff. “That’s not what she said.”
He closed his eyes as if praying for the strength to finish this conversation. “You and I both know how senseless it is to believe anything that comes from her mouth.”
Nikki stopped her attempt to retreat. He was right. Caroline knew how to twist things. She lifted her eyes to meet his. “But I saw you. I saw the flowers you gave her. She was the girl from your past?—”
His hold on her wrist tightened. “You. You were the girl from my past, Nikki. Don’t you get it? You were the girl that I couldn’t get out of my head. You were the person who was worth another broken heart. You were the only one capable of making me want to try again—to have a family.”
Her mouth parted. “What?”
Mateo tugged her closer, his other hand now clasped against the side of her neck as he brushed a forgotten tear with his thumb. “You were the crush who got away,” he whispered. “You are the beautiful, kind, spirited woman who makes me feel like anything is possible. You don’t know how sorry I am for not telling you the truth about that day—the day I bumped into Caroline. Those flowers were for you, and she’d made me so mad that I forgot to grab them on my way out.”
Nikki shivered. The note had been for her? He’d wanted something with her for all of these years? She would have laughed at the impossibility of it, but then there would be no explanation for why he was here pouring his heart out to her.
