Nash didn’t even have to try to picture his life as it had been a day ago on that last date. They’d debated the benefits of one sad-looking Christmas tree over another with the fervor of an old married couple picking what show to watch on TV. Then he’d tossed it over his shoulder and carried it home while Chelle walked beside him with the dogs, who stopped every three steps to sniff a mailbox or the corner of a stoop. It had just started to snow when they got to the corner of her block, and she’d stuck her tongue out to catch the flakes, managing to look both adorable and hot in the process. When she’d opened up the package with matching Christmas pajamas, he hadn’t hesitated, because he’d known it would make her smile and there was nothing better than that.

Yesterday had been perfect, right up until it hadn’t.

“Our marriage was just an arrangement,” he said, each word feeling like a lie. “As Chelle said to me yesterday, we both got what we needed out of it.”

Bristol sat her coffee mug down on the island, sympathy shining in her eyes as she gave him a grim smile. “Whatever you say, Nash.”

What he’d said was the cold, hard truth—no mansplaining needed.

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-One

Chelle

Chelle left the dogs at home this time as she trudged through the fresh-fallen snow along the dog path across St. George’s Park to Grounded Coffee for a meeting she wasn’t sure she’d ever be ready to have. Some things a grown-ass adult couldn’t skip out on, though, and that included firing the agent she’d never hired in the first place.

As soon as she entered the coffee shop, Macon waved at her from a table in front of the glass wall looking into the kitchen, where the chefs were making mouthwateringly good chocolate croissants, hazelnut puffs, and other pastries.

Clearing her throat still raw from a night spent crying, she walked over and sat down across from him. The waitress lingering nearby sending Macon not-so-covert glances was at their table a second later. After taking their order, she hurried to the kitchen, and Macon launched into a cheerful congratulations and deep dive into his expectations for her book and the pros and cons of taking the deal that would be offered, as opposed to putting the book up for auction so several publishing houses could fight over it.

It was amazing and overwhelming and not the conversation she needed to be having with him right now.

“Look,” she said when he finally took a breath and she pushed past the awkward humiliation of the moment burning a hole in her gut. “I know you did all of this as a favor to your brother, but you don’t have to worry about it. I’m not interested in publishing the book.”