8. Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

Indy — No w

B elly aching, I doubled over in a laugh. I hadn’t laughed this hard in . . . well, the last time Nolan made me laugh. I shook my head, struggling to catch my breath as I straightened up. I glanced at him, expecting him to join me. But he only watched me with a calm, calculated smile.

I stepped back, afraid he might be half serious. I looked over my shoulder, and after ensuring there was nothing but us and tumbleweeds in the alley behind the diner, I stammered, “You want to stay married?”

He dipped his chin. “I do.”

I gawked at him, wondering if whatever had infected his brain was contagious. “No.” I shook my head, refusing to let the idea take root. “You had your chance and you didn’t want it. It’s too late to fix things. You don’t get to just decide you want to be with me—”

“I don’t want to be with you.”

Despite myself, I winced. I didn’t want to be with him either, but I wasn’t shouting it from the rooftops. Nolan must’ve seen my hurt as he added, “If we can agree on anything, it’s that it’s too late for us . . . but maybe it’s not too late to fix a few things.”

I took another step away, my back hitting the building. “I don’t understand. ”

His throat bobbed, and I swore his fingers shook before he tucked them into the pockets of his jeans. “Sorry. You know I’m shit for planning. I guess what I meant to say is: I don’t want to get divorced. Yet .”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “Well, when’s convenient for you? I’m booked for the rest of the weekend, but I might be free on Wednesday.”

“If you’d let me talk, I’ll tell you.” He raised a brow, his lips twitching as I glowered at him. “I might be a fool, but I don’t actually think we can save our marriage. But seeing as you’re going to be here for a month, I thought it might be an opportunity to fix some damage. Maybe become friends—”

“Why?” I pressed, not really looking for an answer. “You never wanted to be friends before. Years went by, and I never heard a word from you.” To be fair, I hadn’t tried to talk to him either, but I wasn’t the crazy one suggesting we stay married. “Why now? Why drag this on?”

Nolan stared at me, and if he was surprised by my bluntness, that was his own fault. He’d known who I was when he married me. “Wouldn’t it be nice if you didn’t feel like you had to avoid me and you could come home to see your parents every now and then?”

“Despite what you believe, my choice in not coming home has nothing to do with you. My world doesn’t revolve around you anymore.”

He let out a low laugh, and the look in his eyes told me I was driving him insane. “I’m not signing those divorce papers.”

“Fine.” I shoved the papers against his chest and into his arms. I’d make another copy—he could stick these up his butt. “Having you sign was just a formality. You can’t actually stop me from divorcing you, moron.”

He crammed the papers into his back pocket. “You can’t.”

“Why can’t I?” I had no intention of listening, but if Nolan wanted to string this along, I deserved to know why. “Why are you doing this? Why can’t you let me go—”

“I need to do this for my dad!”

I opened and closed my mouth, clueless as to what I might’ve said. Out of everything, I hadn’t expected that. Nolan’s jaw tightened, and by the way he avoided my gaze, I knew he didn’t want to give me more than that. But I stayed quiet. I deserved to know what he meant.

“Dad never agreed about us going our separate ways. He tried pushing me more times than I can count to fix things with you. But I never listened, and obviously he took matters into his own hands by stopping our divorce.” His voice was low, his eyes cast downward. “I don’t need to remind you how selfish I was back then—you already know. But I said a lot of things to him I regret, and I’ll never be able to take them back.” He rubbed the back of his head, the tips of his ears red. “I wished I’d repaired my relationship with him before he died.”

My heart ached, and a piece of myself I hadn’t felt in a long time wanted to reach out to him. To comfort him for the loss of his dad. But I kept my hands at my sides. “What does that have to do with me?”

“In that letter he wrote—the one just to me—he called me out on some shit. Most of it regarding our relationship. Old man even dared me to try and win you back.” Ready to protest, I opened my mouth, then stopped when he raised his hand. “I know that’s not happening. That’s not what this is. But he still got me thinking . . . I’ve screwed up a lot of things, Indy. More than just you.” He held my gaze, not balking from the truth, no matter how much I wished he’d walk away and never look back. “I’ve made peace with the fact I’ll have to live the rest of my life with regret, but I’d like to go on with a little bit less. If I could fix some damage and come to some sort of friendship with you, that would be enough.”

I wrapped my arms around myself, not liking the way his words made me feel. I understood his regret, even felt some of my own. But I was afraid I’d only have more if I went through with this.

Nolan must’ve seen the no forming on my lips as he then said, “There’s something else.” I doubted there was anything he could possibly say to convince me to agree, but I raised a brow, waiting. “Few years back, I really wanted to buy something. Except I didn’t have the money, and Dad wasn’t for it, so he wouldn’t give me a loan. Turns out he’d been setting some money aside for me.” He cracked a smile then. “Guess he thought he might be able to bribe me into going after you, cause he told me in the letter the money was mine if I tried. Now, I already looked—the account and money is still there. There’s roughly thirty thousand, and if you do this with me, I’ll split it with you.”

I parted my lips, failing to hide my surprise. Fifteen grand was enough to make any college graduate salivate, at least one who’d be paying loans off until she was one foot in the grave. New York was expensive, and I was scraping by as it was. I’d even had to sell my car so I could move there. It would be a nice cushion to fall back on if I didn’t land this job . . . Nope, not going there. The job was mine.

But . . .

“Why not just take the money?” I refused to let Nolan sweep me off in a bridal carry just yet. I’d made too many rash, emotional decisions in the past, and I’d barely lived to suffer the consequences. “It’s there, it’s yours to take. Your dad will never know if you repaired your relationship with me or not. So why not take it? You wouldn’t have to split it with me that way.”

He huffed a laugh, giving me a smirk. That was enough to let me know he’d considered it. I wasn’t surprised—I would’ve considered it myself. But it was a surprise when he said, “The time for me to prove to you I’m a better man has come and gone . . . but I want to prove it to Dad.”

My eyes burned, and part of me wanted to be angry at his reasoning. But I knew it was the truth. Despite where their relationship had ended, Nolan loved his father. I’d seen and felt that love. I’d meant it when I said I grieved his dad. A part of me always would.

And I too knew what it felt like to be tangled in regret. It was choking me now. Guilt had the power to make people do drastic things—I knew that firsthand. I’d bet Nolan did too.

“There would need to be rules.” My voice trembled. I couldn’t believe what I was saying even as I was saying it. “Some sort of contract or guidelines.”

He rolled his lips together. “What did you have in mind?”

I had nothing in mind. Nothing beyond the pressing truth that I had no idea where my future was heading, not with the ties of my past holding me back. I needed to figure out how to convince the new CEO I was right for this job. Prove to my parents I was a different person. All of which was impossible to do because I was here. I’d been arrested in record time and sent my high school teacher running for the hills. At this rate, I’d be the only one left in this town, alone with broken dreams and promises.

But maybe this was an opportunity for me . . .

“It would have to be entirely platonic.” I wanted that to be clear right off the bat. “No touching, kissing. Absolutely nothing.”

“I assumed that was implied.” He smirked. “But it’s good to know I won’t have to stress about you putting your hands all over me. It might get exhausting fighting you off.”

“You were the one who could never keep his hands to himself,” I muttered before I could think better of it.

“And I seem to remember you enjoying it just fine.”

I glowered at him, one second away from calling this whole shindig off. Nolan must’ve understood that as he raised his hands in the air. “Alright, no funny business. Anything else?”

I blew out a breath, not letting myself second-guess what I’d decided. “Yeah, I need you to help repair my reputation.”

He sputtered a laugh. “If you bit someone’s ankles in New York, I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do to help you—”

“Here. I need your help fixing it here .”

His smile seemed to waver, hesitation in his eyes. “Indy . . .”

“People like you. It doesn’t seem to matter what you do—everyone falls at your feet.” To hell with pride. Nolan was desperate to show his dad he’d changed, and I was the same with Mom. “I can’t get anyone to come within five feet of me without thinking I’m going to throw hot oil on them, but maybe if you pretended you were okay with me . . . that you at least liked me, then maybe the town would let their guards down enough to see that I’ve changed.”

Nolan watched me, and I thought by the tension in his jaw he’d say no. But he must’ve needed this as much as I did. “Alright. I guess I could take you on a date or two. Let folks see us—”

“What?” I squeaked. “We just said no funny business!”

“How else am I supposed to show everyone you won’t sic a raccoon on them if they cough in your direction?” He opened his arms wide, this time wearing a big ol’ grin. “If we want ’em to see you’ve changed, we’ve gotta give ’em a reason to look. And I’m sorry to say, you’ve got a reputation that has them lining their doorways with salt. But maybe if we can show them you mean no harm, and you’re just here for a good time, they might pull the stick out of their asses.”

I forced a laugh, willing the pressure in my chest to ease. I knew he meant it as a joke, but it hurt all the same. I might’ve been a nuisance as a teenager, but most of the time Nolan had been right there with me. Except they loved him.

He was the golden boy. The one with a bright future. The one who dreamed big. He was destined to put this town on the map. And me?

Well, I stole the golden boy’s dreams.

“Don’t you have a girlfriend or someone to take on dates?” I mumbled.

“You think I’d be doing this if I had a girlfriend?” When I didn’t respond, he clenched his jaw. “No, Indy. I don’t have a girlfriend. Do you have a boyfriend? Maybe a husband or two I should know about?”

“Just the one I can’t seem to shake,” I said quietly, this time with a tentative smile. Nolan returned it, and I thought it might’ve been the only honest one he’d given me in years.

I took a deep breath, truly considering my options. This was no different than what I did—or would do—for a living here in a few months. I’d seen several agents plan events or PR stunts to boost a client’s image. I’d even helped Evelyn plan a fake date or two for the athletes she represented.

“We’re not going on dates, fake or not.” I didn’t care if it was a good idea. I wasn’t an idiot. I read romance books. And I was not fake-dating my not-so-ex-husband. “But it would be a good idea if we did something together. Let the town see us being friends ,” I emphasized, even though we weren’t anywhere close to friends. Friends didn’t let friends get wrongly arrested. “But I want to keep this between us. As far as everyone else knows, we’re divorced.”

“I’m not lying to my family,” he said, not missing a beat. “If they ask, I’m telling them. Otherwise, it stays between us. ”

I raised my brows. It was admirable he wanted to be honest with his family. There was no way in hell I was telling mine. “Okay, I think that’s good for now. If there’s anything either of us wants to add, we can let the other know.” A wave of nausea rushed through me as I fully grasped what we were doing. Wanting to lessen the severity, I muttered, “If you were smart, you would’ve mentioned the money first. Would’ve saved you some time in trying to convince me.”

The corner of his mouth ticked up, and I could see by the glint in his eyes he was curious if I meant that or not. Thankfully, he didn’t press it. “Wasn’t too sure I wanted to share.”

I let out a low laugh, shaking my head. Asshole.

Before I could chide something back, Nolan asked, “So, do we have a deal?”

I bit my lip, hesitation on the tip of my tongue. Logic screamed I should get the hell out of dodge and away from Nolan Graham. But I shoved it down. I’d survived him before—I could do it again.

“I’m only here for a month.” My voice was breathless. “After that, I’m gone. I can’t give you more time than that.”

I’d already given him too much.

“That’s all the time I need.”

Needing to clear myself of this situation, I was taking a step toward the diner when Nolan put his hand on my wrist. His touch was gone just as quickly as it came, but it was enough to make me stop.

I held my breath, and I was certain he did the same as we eyed one another like we were waiting for the other to strike. It was reckless, what we were doing. It would only cause more trouble than good.

But neither of us voiced that. Nolan held out his hand, and I gave him mine, promising myself I wouldn’t give him anything more when he said, “One month. To say goodbye, once and for all.”