Pushing the Boundaries (Picking up the Pieces #3) (33 page)

“You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about!” I shot back, my blood heating at his immediate defense of Lizzy. “She did this! She broke us. That’s on her, not me. You need to stay the fuck out of business that’s not yours.”

“Listen here, you stubborn son of a…Holy hell, man!” Brett coughed and jumped from the cough. “What the fuck have you been feeding your dog? My mouth was open!”

A smile spread across my face as Brett used the collar of his shirt to wipe at his tongue. “Jesus, that’s disgusting.” He grabbed the beer bottle from the table and gargled a mouthful before storming into the kitchen and returning a minute later with a can of Lysol. In a matter of seconds, the entire house smelled like a hospital.

“He doesn’t like it when people raise their voices at me,” I said, giving Merle another pat. “It’s a defense mechanism.”

Brett leaned down and lifted up Merle’s tail, liberally spraying at least half the can on the couch where his butt had been resting.

As Brett went through his obsessive decontamination, a knock sounded at the front door. I gently pushed Merle off my lap and went to answer.

“Trevor Devareau?” the short, balding man at the front door asked after I pulled it open.

“Yeah, that’s me. Who are you?

He lifted his meaty hand and thrust an envelope toward me.

“What the hell’s this?” I asked as I pulled it from his stumpy fingers.

“You’ve been served, sir. Have a great evening.” And with that, he was gone.

What the…what?

Shutting the door, I made my way back to the living room and began ripping the envelope open.

“What’s that,” Brett asked, turning from his disinfecting duties.

“No clue. Some dude just told me I was served and took off.”

The moment I pulled out the papers and read the bolded black words across the top, my rage boiled over.

“Are you fucking kidding me!” I yelled at the top of my lungs.

“The hell, man?”

I didn’t even bother to respond to Brett as I shoved the papers at him and made a beeline to the kitchen counter for my keys. I barely made out his hysterical laughter over the blood rushing through my ears.

“Holy shit! She’s suing you for joint custody of the goddamn pets? That’s hilarious! Wait, where are you going?”

“To strangle me a redhead.”

“You think maybe you should calm down first? You go out there half-cocked and you’re bound to do something you’ll regret.”

“Oh, I won’t regret this,” I snatched up my keys, shoved my wallet into my back pocket then turned for the door. “I’ve got a solid insanity defense. Trust me. No jury in their right mind would convict me.”

“Trev, man, just relax. She’s not even home right now.”

I stopped dead in my tracks and spun around to face Brett. “Where is she?”

“Not so sure I should tell you right now, buddy. To be honest, you’re a little scary at the moment.”

“You don’t tell me where my girl is right this fucking second, you’ll be shitting in a bag the rest of your life.”

Brett’s lips tipped up into a smirk as he rocked back on his heels. “Your girl, huh?”

“What?”

“You just called her your girl. I knew you were still all mushy and lovey over her. You’re such a chick.” He jumped back in a panic when I took a swing at his nuts. “Okay, okay! She’s at Jeremy’s and Savvy’s place. They’re having a dinner or some shit.”

“And we weren’t invited?” I asked indignantly.

“Jeez, this break-up really has turned you into a woman.”

My aim was better the second time and Brett went down like a ton of bricks, writhing around on the floor and cupping his sac as I headed out the door and to my truck.

Shit, maybe this wasn’t such a great idea.

Emmy let out a sigh as I walked past her again. “Liz, just relax and sit down; you’re pacing’s starting to make me nauseous.”

“Everything makes you nauseous. It’s the Mini-Luke growing inside of you,” Savannah said as she rubbed on Emmy’s belly.

“No shit! I swear this kid already weighs seven pounds and is trying out for the Olympic soccer team. Get thee out, Satan!” she shouted down at her belly like a loon.

“Uh, babe?” Jeremy poked his head in the doorway to their living room. “You said we were having a dinner party.”

“Yeah?” Savannah asked with attitude.

“Uh, it’s just that there’s no dinner, sugar.”

Savannah popped up from the couch and stuck her hands on her hips. “Would it kill you to take the initiative and make dinner for once? I didn’t realize when we got married that I was entering into a life of servitude! Is it too much to ask for you to get
your
ass into the kitchen for one night and make dinner for
me
? God! You’re so insensitive! If I’d have known I was entering into wedlock with such a chauvinistic—”

Jeremy interrupted her shrieking by lovingly offering, “Why don’t I order some Chinese for everyone?”

The raving lunatic disappeared, quickly replaced by a brightly-smiling Savannah. “Thanks, baby. Love you!”

Jeremy hauled it out of the living room and back into the kitchen with the rest of the guys where he, no doubt, thought it was safest.

“You’re awful,” Mickey said with a laugh.

“Nah, I just love screwing with him. He makes it so damn easy.”

Stacia asked, “You think maybe we should tell the guys what’s going down?”

“Nah,” Emmy replied, propping her feet up on the ottoman and resting her hands on her protruding belly. “It’s so much more fun watching them look like confused idiots. It entertains me.”

The light mood my friends managed to create was quickly extinguished when someone began pounding on the front door.

“Show time,” Emmy said with an excited laugh. Needless to say, I wasn’t sharing in her enthusiasm. Judging by the knock alone, Trevor was well beyond pissed off and entering into aneurism territory.

“What’s up, brother?” Jeremy said jovially as he pulled the door open.

“What the hell?” Trevor demanded, taking in everyone in the room before storming inside. “You’re having a goddamned dinner party and I wasn’t invited?

I stepped forward in an attempt to diffuse the situation. “Trevor—”

“This is some bullshit!” he announced angrily before turning to me. “You’re breaking up the band, Yoko!”

So much for trying to remain calm. Ten seconds in and he was already managing to piss me of.

“They were my friends first!” Yeah, okay, so I sounded like a bratty teenager. But Trevor had always had a wicked ability to bring that out in me.

“Uh, what’s happening right now?” I heard who I could only assume was Ben asking from behind me.

“Don’t try to figure it out,” Jeremy informed him. “It’ll give you a headache. Trust me, it’s best just to sit back and watch the show.”

Savannah turned to her husband with a glare. “Shh! I’m trying to hear this,” she whisper-yelled.

“Well, Luke’s mine,” Trevor stubbornly informed me. “He’s
my
best friend.”

My temper rose. “Well, Emmy’s mine and she’s his fiancé, which means I get Luke by association!”

“Getting a little off-topic, babe,” Emmy whispered in my ear. “Keep it together.”

Shit. She was right. Just like always, Trevor and I had fallen into our typical pattern of arguing over the most ridiculous things.

“I like being fought over. Makes me feel all warm and gooey inside.” Emmy punched Luke in the gut before turning to me and waving her hand in a
please continue
motion.

Sucking in a fortifying breath, I turned back to Trevor with pleading eyes. “I’m not filing for joint custody of the pets,” I told him, getting right to the point. “Honestly, I didn’t even know there was such a thing until I talked to Ben…” Trevor’s gaze cut to something behind my shoulder and I heard Ben ask, “Who needs a beer? I need a beer. I’ll just be in the kitchen for the duration of this little chat.” Then I heard hurried footsteps exiting the room.

“You’ve refused to talk to me for two weeks. I was getting a little desperate. I knew you’d lose your shit when you got those papers and would come storming over here.”

“A little dramatic, don’t you think?”

“Uh, probably?” I answered nervously. His jaw ticked as he looked at me and I was beginning to worry that this was a horrible idea.

Finally, he let out a sigh, “Well, I’m here. What is it that’s so important you had to stage a set-up with the merry band of misfits back there?”

I opened my mouth to respond then quickly realized we still had an audience. I turned and looked at everyone over my shoulder, tilting my head in a hint that it was time for them to leave. “Uh, guys?” I started when it became clear that they weren’t getting it. “A little privacy would be fantastic right about now.”

Kenzie began rounding everyone up and ushering them out. “We’ll just…be in the kitchen.”

“But I wanted to watch,” I heard Luke pout as he was shoved out of the room.

“Don’t worry, baby. I’ll get the scoop from Lizzy later and fill you in.”

A second later, everyone was gone, finally leaving me and Trevor alone. My stomach felt like a swarm of butterflies had taken flight, but I pushed past my nerves and gave all my attention to the man who’d turned my world upside-down.

It was now or never.

“I screwed up.” It wasn’t the strongest start, but I figured stating the obvious would be as good an opener as any. “I never should have doubted you. That stuff with Marissa was all me, my insecurities. I let her get in my head when I should have known better, and I’ll regret hurting you for the rest of my life.”

“Liz—”

I held my hand up to stop him. “I’m not finished. Just…just let me get this all out, okay? Then you can say what you have to.”

His hard expression softened slightly as he took in my discomfort. “Okay.”

I inhaled deeply through my nose before blowing the breath out, mentally preparing myself to get through the entire speech I’d memorized for this exact moment. I didn’t want to leave anything out. I needed him to know
exactly
how important he was to me.

“For the longest time, I’ve envied what my friends have. I wanted to meet a guy who would look at me and treat me like I was his everything, because that’s what I see every single day when I look at the people around me. You gave that to me, Trevor. You gave me exactly what I wanted, but I was too stupid and insecure to fully appreciate it. I convinced myself that someone as amazing as you could never be completely happy with someone like me. I let myself believe that I wasn’t good enough to keep you for long because you could do so much better. The truth is, I let myself focus on that because I’m so insanely in love with you, I knew there was no way I could survive it if you ended things between us.”

Trevor’s brows dipped low. “Lizzy—”

“I’m not finished. I kept you at arm’s length this entire time because I was so afraid of losing you that I didn’t let myself see that you already loved me just as much as I love you. But I see it now, Trevor. I see it. I see it in the rooms you built in my salon simply because you knew I wanted them. I see it in the way you didn’t hesitate to move your Barcalounger and that hideous beer sign out of the house when I said I didn’t like them. I see it in the way you love my family even when the things that come out of their mouths are cringe-inducing. I see it in the way your eyes brighten just a little bit more when you look at me. And I
feel
it in the way you hold me, how you find any reason to touch me if I’m near, like I’m an addiction for you.”