After a night of very little sleep, Lina called to tell Adele she couldn’t meet her for lunch and a manicure. “I need to figure this out.”

“I think you already have.”

“Maybe after what he did he doesn’t deserve me, but I still want him. Am I supposed to punish myself because he betrayed me?”

“No,” Adele said. “Take him back.”

“I’m so afraid if I continue to push him away he’s going to settle for someone else and then for the rest of my life I’m going be the one punished because I’ll have to live with the knowledge that I gave him away. I’m so tired of pretending I don’t want him. It’s exhausting.”

“Hello? Are we having a conversation or are you just talking to yourself?”

“Thanks. I know what I need to do,” Lina said before ending the call.

Chapter 48

48

Nick stood as she approached the table he occupied at the Mexican restaurant Lina thought of as their own. “So, you and Dana,” she said after she was seated across from him.

“We’re friends.”

“I like her.”

He looked up as the waiter approached. “I took the liberty of ordering you a drink.”

Lina smiled as a margarita was set before her. “Perfect.” Lina took a long swallow, trying to gather her thoughts. “This is hard.”

“It doesn’t have to be. We can just enjoy each other’s company and have a nice meal.”

“I feel like I owe you an explanation.”

“You don’t owe me anything. You never have, and this,” he began as he reached out and ran his thumb over her engagement ring, “tells me everything I need to know.”

Lina’s eyes dropped to their hands, watching as Nick continued to run his thumb over the ring Phil had run his thumb over twenty-four hours earlier. “I—” She stopped midsentence as her cell phone began to vibrate. “Let me make sure this isn’t one of the kids.” She pulled her hand from beneath his and turned over her phone, reading her mother’s name on the display.

“Do you need to get that?”

“No, I’ll call her back.” As soon as the phone stopped vibrating, it began again.

“Are you sure?”

“I’ll just be a second.” She put her head down as she brought the phone to her ear. “Mom, I’m at a restaurant. Can this wait?”

“No. It’s Shiloh. There’s been an accident.”

Katie stole a glance at her cell phone. It was almost 8:30 p.m. Her father told her they were only going to Mike and Jeanie’s for dinner, but dinner had ended thirty minutes earlier, and he continued to talk as if he had nothing better to do than spend the evening sitting around their kitchen table.