When she walked into the living room, away from him, the distance between them grew in more ways than one. He felt a tug on the invisible string holding them together. He wanted to reel her back in but he wasn’t sure how.

“Why are you pushing this subject and insisting we explore it?” He didn’t have any anger in his voice because he didn’t feel anger. The emotion knocking into him right now was an overwhelming sense of loss.

With every word and unresolved piece of the argument he could feel Alexis and Maddie slip away from him.

“Because if you don’t deal with her loss you’ll never be able to deal with the life that comes after.” She lifted her chin. “The life I want you to have with me.”

That sounded like an ultimatum but she wasn’t pushing or begging him for more. It was how she seemed willing to let him go forever that pricked at him. No . . . it was bigger than that. It punched through him, leaving an empty sucking hole behind.

“I’ve done okay for the last two years.” He knew that was a lie the second he said it and rushed to clean it up. “You know what I mean.”

She sat down on the arm of the couch, facing him. “Your family begged you to come here and rest.”

Evan had dropped that bomb. He might not have mentioned the intervention, but there was one. They made it quite clear he wasn’t welcome in the office for at least a month. After everything he did for them and their checkbooks, and how hard he worked. They abandoned him, leaving him out here without them.

An unexpected ache started in his chest and he rubbed against the spot to ease the pressure. “My job is to be the reliable one.”

“Out there. Not in here.” She shook her head. “Not with me.”

That’s what this was about. Him opening up to her and showing her . . . something. He still didn’t get what it was she needed before he could tick the box and things could go back to how they were. “You want to see me lose it?”

The color drained from her face. “God, no.”

“Then what?” He really needed a clue here.

“I want you to feel something.”

“No.” The word kept repeating in his head.

He looked at her sitting there. Slumped shoulders and sad eyes. They’d returned to the place they were that first time in Ben’s office. Distrusting and circling each other, not sure what to expect.

The realization that he lost something—again—sliced through him. A raw emptiness oozed out. He wanted to lash out at her for making him deal with it. Feel it.