“So what if she is?” he asked.

“She’s your family, Nick. She had a right to know.”

“No, no, no,” he argued. “She was my family once, a long time ago, but she moved away and I moved on, and that’s the way I want it. Just like I don’t know where my parents are and I don’t care. I have kept my life on lockdown for a reason.”

“Is that why I couldn’t find anything about you on the Internet or in the news?” I asked.

“You looked?”

“Yes, back when I thought you were a grumpy old codger.” I resisted adding that I hadn’t been wrong, which I thought showed remarkable restraint.

He huffed out a breath. “I paid a lot of money to have any trace of me wiped clean from the Internet. I’ve never granted interviews with the press or been on social media. I even had nondisclosure agreements for anyone I got involved with—until you.” He paused and I knew he was thinking what a mistake that had been. Ouch.

“Assuming they’re not dead, I never wanted to risk my pa . . . past showing up and demanding a handout. Nice to know it worked. Mostly,” he said.

“Lexi isn’t your parents,” I said. I braced for his ire.

“I know but it changes nothing. I don’t want her in my life.”

I felt myself get furious. “What about what she wants?”

“She’s better off without me.”

“How do you figure?” I asked.

“For the same reason that you’ll be better off without me,” he said. He gestured between us. “I’m damaged goods, Annabelle. I’m no good to anyone.”

“Bullshit,” I said. “So you had a stroke, so what? I have high cholesterol and asthma when I catch a cold. We all have stuff, Nick.”

He glared at me. “It’s not that simple.”

“Yes, it is actually.” I stood my ground.

“You had no right to call Lexi in when I was unconscious,” he said. “You didn’t even wake me to ask permission. You made a decision that wasn’t yours to make.”

I knew he was right, and my voice came out a bit more defensive than I would have liked. “I was only trying to help.”

“I don’t want your help. I don’t want to be with a woman who thinks she’s my mommy,” he said. “What’s next? Are you going to start cutting my lunch into adorable little shapes, picking out my clothes, and making sure I eat all of my vegetables?”

I flinched. He had no idea that he was recounting what had gone wrong in both of my marriages. According to my exes, I tended to suffocate them, although in Jeremy’s case, I suspected he liked it that way.