She looks everywhere but at me, and tears continue to roll down her cheeks. “You were on the phone. And you were making plans with someone else. It hurt so much, Josh. You used me to make someone else jealous and then—”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I take a deep breath, blowing it slowly out. “Sorry. You didn’t deserve that. I’ve just been mystified for all these years about why you left, and now …”

“You said you were going to ditch me. That I was history.”

Understanding hits me like a ton of bricks. I should have told her that morning what that phone call was about. She must have walked in at the wrong time.

I pull out my phone. “I want you to see something.”

She’s quiet as I navigate to YouTube and pull up the clip I want.

“Come here.” I grasp her arm and pull her around until she’s cradled against me. She doesn’t fight, and I wrap my arms around her, my chest to her back, and hold my phone in front of us.

“What are you doing?”

“You never saw any of my movies, right?”

She shakes her head.

“Not even my first one?”

She shakes her head again, and I press play on the clip. I’m an undercover cop in the movie, who’s trying to find a way into a crime family. And I do it by making the daughter of the bad guy fall in love with me.

And when I struggle at that last hurdle, I use another woman to make her jealous.

Mission accomplished, she calls me.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll ditch the bitch and come to you. You know it’s always been you, baby.”

Delaney stiffens in my arms, and I let the clip finish.

I laugh. “She’s history.”

I stop the clip.

“Was that what you heard that morning?”

She lets out a sob. I can’t be angry with her. How on earth would I have reacted if the shoe was on the other foot? I had no idea that morning when Mac called that I was so close to landing the part. That all they wanted was for me to run some of the lines in character with one of the actors I’d be working with.

I’d already run through two scenes when I got to that part.

“Oh, baby.” I turn her around in my arms and don’t wait for her to say anything in response. Wrapping her tightly, I stroke her head while she cries on my shoulder. What else can I do? She hurt as much as I did.

“I screwed up.” She sobs.

She pulls away. Her eyes are red-rimmed and all I want to do is make sure she never has to cry again. I was so in love with her six years ago, and seeing her again has woken up my heart.