Wild Tendy (IceCats Book 2) Read online

  She pulls out of my grip and heads for the door. She needs to go. To cool off.

  “I have you blocked in.”

  She shrugs before taking my keys from the bowl next to the door. “I’ll move it and leave them on the front steps.”

  The door slams behind her, and I don’t know what just happened. All these emotions are swirling deep inside me, and soon, I realize they are making me sick. Her words turn over and over again in my head, and I almost don’t believe them. I look at my helmet that is lying there, waiting for me to hide, but I don’t reach for it. I don’t want to hide. I want her to listen to me. I go to the door, pulling it open as she gets out of my truck that she’s parked in the yard.

  “So, you’re breaking up with me?”

  She shrugs as she throws my keys to me. “I don’t know, Nico. I need time to cool off.”

  “Because I paid all your debts? Way to treat me when I do that for you.”

  She stops mid-step. “And that, right there, is why I didn’t want you to do this. You don’t realize because you don’t think things through, Nico. But you’ve basically made me feel trapped. As if I could never leave you. And that’s why I’m leaving.”

  I rush down the stairs, running to her and stopping her before she closes the door. I hold the door in my hand as she looks up at me with tearful eyes, but I shake my head. “Hear me out.” I crouch down and take her hand in mine. She wants to fight me on it, but I hope she doesn’t. “I hear you, and to be honest, I didn’t mean to say that. I don’t want this to be held over your head, which is why I asked my mom to do it with my money. I know that you didn’t want anyone to do it, and I get it. I do. You are a strong woman who can do this all yourself, but I am a man who wants my woman to be happy. I want to care for you. I want to make things easier for you because I love how you wake up with a smile on your face. I love how you just seem lighter—”

  “Let me stop you there,” she says, squeezing my hand. “All that wasn’t because of the debt being gone. It was because of you.”

  I press my lips together, and soon, tears are in my eyes. “I don’t want to lose you over this. Aviva, I did it because I love you.”

  She looks away, inhaling shakily. “I don’t want to lose you, but I don’t know how to forgive you for this. Especially when you feel no remorse whatsoever—”

  “I’m sorry I upset you, but I’m not sorry I paid those bills,” I say, and she brings in her brows. “I swear to you, Aviva, I did it because I know I’m going to marry you, and I would have paid them then. So, what’s the problem with doing it now?”

  She removes her hand from mine. “Because at least that way, I wouldn’t have been made out to be a charity case.” She starts the car and looks over at me. “I would move if I were you.”

  I do as she says because there is no talking to her. I step out of the way. “Please call me tomorrow.”

  She shrugs. “I don’t know.”

  Then she shuts the door and drives off.

  As I watch her drive away, everything is shaking. I don’t want to believe this is over; she’s just mad. But even so, I feel like she’s taken my heart with her.

  And hell, she might as well keep it, because it’s hers.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Aviva

  I clutch my pillow and rub my face into it, hoping to get rid of the tears. When I’m not working, I’m in bed, and it’s really getting pathetic. It’s been three days since I’ve seen or talked to Nico, and I want to say things are better, but they’re not. I’m still spitting mad at what Nico did, and I still can’t believe he did it. He knew I would be upset. But, as angry as I am, I can believe he would do this. He doesn’t think, he just does, and he does it with his whole heart. When I drove away, it killed me to do so, especially with the tears in his eyes. I know I said I couldn’t be with him because of this, but that was the anger talking.

  I’m just so mad.

  I’ve worked so hard for what I needed and wanted for Callie. Never taken from anyone. But then Nico comes along and does what Nico does. Whatever the hell he wants. And I encouraged it. Loved it. He made me feel good, made me feel loved, and while I know he did it with purity in his heart, I don’t want him just to save me when he feels I’m drowning. I wanted him to discuss it with me, tell me his plans. I would have told him no, and if he did it anyway, I would have known it was him. Instead, I’ve stressed for months that someone is out there helping me and giving me things when I don’t deserve them. Instead, it was being done by the man I love. And while I still don’t feel I deserve it all, Nico does. His love knows no bounds, and I wish instead of angry, I felt appreciative. He loved me enough to make things easier for me. But the problem is, I don’t understand how.

  When my door opens, I look up as Callie comes in.

  And then Jaylin.

  “Great, the cavalry.”

  Jaylin laughs as she crawls into the bed and under the covers. Callie climbs onto the covers beside me, moving my hair out of my face. “Are you okay?”

  “Fine, just pissed.”

  “I know,” she says, and she smiles. “He won last night.”

  I nod. “Good to know I don’t affect his hockey playing.”

  “I still think you do,” Callie says, and I roll my eyes. “He looked sad through the whole game.”

  “He’s an adult. He’s fine.”

  She gives me a hard look. “Aviva, are you truly surprised?”

  I scrunch up my face. “What?”

  “Come on. It’s Nico. Surely you had to have thought he was the one doing this. I did.”

  “I did too,” Jaylin says from the other side of me.

  I go up onto my elbows to look at them both. “And no one thought to say anything?”

  Jaylin shrugs, cuddling in my blankets. “I figured, who cared as long as you were happy?”

  I glare. “But it bothered me that someone was doing it.”

  “But you were happy,” Callie says, and I look back over at her. “You were finally doing things for yourself. Smiling more and living. I mean, you dropped everything to go to Barcelona. Aviva, you’d never have done that before.”

  “And I know you want to be a strong woman, hear me roar, but the thing is, you are,” Jaylin stresses. “You fought to stay afloat for so long. And yes, it sucks he lied, but he did it for a good reason.”

  “Because he loves you,” Callie adds, and our eyes meet. “He loves you so much, Aviva. I know he shouldn’t have lied, but I don’t think you can really break up with him for it.”

  Jaylin nods. “It’s a little silly to do that when you feel what you feel for him.”

  I shake my head. “How can I be with someone who lies to me?”

  Jaylin lets her head drop back, and Callie lets out a long breath. “Here we go.”

  “What?”

  “Self-Sabotage Sally in full force.”

  I make a face. “He sabotaged us by lying and paying for something that wasn’t his place to pay for. He bought me this shop—”

  “Because he knew how much Dustin upset you,” Callie stresses. “And if, for some reason, Dad comes back, the place is ours.”

  “He made sure you and Callie were taken care of, no matter what. When he dropped the deed off yesterday, he told me that, no matter what happens, he wants you to know that everything is yours. He doesn’t want a penny back. And if this is it, keep his heart—it belongs only to you.”

  I groan loudly. “Man, what a line.”

  Callie grins, and Jaylin says, “Nico knew how upset it made Callie that you were worried about her gym fees and knew how much she wanted it all to go away. They’re best buds, and the thing is, Aviva, he always thinks of Callie too. With your mom’s bills, you were suffocating, and his reaction was to take it away because he didn’t want that for you. I don’t know… I wouldn’t be mad at him. I’d be grateful that someone loves me enough to want to take care of me.”

  “I don’t want anyone to take care of me—”

&n