He watched the color drain out of her face as her eyes widened.
He ignored that and declared, “Now this is the way it’s gonna be. You got a father and two brothers who live in this county who can help you out if you got a problem with your car, the house. Unless it affects my children, I don’t want to hear from you. You find someone you wanna date, I don’t care. Date him. I don’t wanna hear from you. I find someone I wanna see, that’s my business. I’ll do it. And I won’t be giving you a courtesy call to share that intel.”
He drew in a breath but continued speaking before she could get a word in.
“But if you need to change arrangements with the kids for any reason, you text me. It’ll be rare I won’t be able to take my kids so that won’t be a problem and we won’t need discussion. We have an issue to discuss about the children, we talk on the phone unless it’s serious. Other than that, Hope, you didn’t want to be in my life, you are no longer in my life. You wanted us done, we’re done. And listen to that, Hope, because I’m not gonna repeat myself, and having a lot of time to think on it, doing that like I’ve been doing now for years. When I say we’re done, we. Are. Done.”
Her eyebrows were up, her eyes blinking rapidly, before she whispered, “You can’t . . . you can’t mean that.”
He felt his head dipping to the side in mystification.
“I loved you,” he told her.
She moved another step forward, lifting her hand, her face again warming. “Hix.”
“I loved the family we made. I loved the life we created.”
She stopped in front of his desk and put her hand on it, her mouth beginning to curve up.
“And you tore that apart,” he went on.
Her lips parted as her face went slack in shock.
“You broke us,” he reminded her. “You broke me. Then you ended us. You wanna be friends now, that’s not gonna happen. You think you can do that and still depend on me to be there whenever you need me, that’s not gonna happen either.”
“I—” she whispered but he didn’t stop speaking.
“I wanted to grow old with you, Hope. I wanted to drive around the country in an RV or buy some bungalow in Arizona to spend the winter months, or whatever we decided we were going to do. But I wanted to do it with you. Hold your hand when our son stood at the front of a church waiting for his bride. Turn right into your arms when our daughters safely brought grandchildren into the world. Sign the cards you gave me for our grandkids’ birthdays, graduations, whatever we could celebrate, until the day I died. I told you all this before when I tried to find a way to fix whatever you thought was broke. But you didn’t listen. You didn’t even share with me what you thought was broke so I could try to fix it. You just took all that from me. And it hurt like fuck. So I am not gonna be your friend or the man you call when the toilet gets backed up. This time, you pushed for what you wanted, it’s you that lives with the consequences. You don’t push even more to make it the way you now want it to be.”
“We really need to talk, Hix,” she whispered urgently, almost pleading.
His voice shared exactly how much he meant it when he stated, “You know my answer to that, and I will not answer that request again.”
They stood staring into each other’s eyes until he watched it happen.
Bets could get mean.
Hope could get ugly.
And right then, she got ugly.
“You want it that way, Hix, you got it,” she bit out.
He pushed off his fist in the desk and crossed his arms on his chest, deciding not to remind her, again, that wasn’t the way he wanted it and point out that was the way she’d made it.
He’d said his piece.
They were done.
And he was done.
“Now I know another election won’t be coming around for a few more years, but don’t think, you treat me like shit this way, it’ll be that easy to win when the other two times you won was because of my dad, my mom, my brothers and me.” She jerked a thumb at herself. “We’re McCook and I’m not thinking it’d be hard to remind folks you’re not.”
Was she serious about that bullshit?
For Christ’s sake, the first time he ran unopposed.
He opened his mouth to speak but she wasn’t done.
“And I hear your slut does good hair, though thank God her hands have never been in mine. But thinkin’, her movin’ in on you the way she did, she might find herself losin’ clients. And fast.”
He felt all the muscles in his body get tight and started, “Hope, don’t you—”
“Nope,” she shook her head, moving away but not losing eye contact with him. “You stood there telling me the way it was, Hix, now you get to know the way it is. And part of that way is that you don’t get to tell me what to do anymore.”
Like he’d ever told the woman what to do.
He rounded the desk and followed her, warning, “You don’t wanna play it this way.”
She put her hand on the door handle, turned to him and spat, “Wanna bet?”
He made it to her just as she’d half-pulled open the door.
He slapped a hand on it above her head and shoved it closed.
She jerked her head back to look up at him with narrowed eyes.
He tipped his chin down to look at her, right up in her space and not moving.
“Shaw is going into the military, but we got soccer camps, dance classes, college tuitions, then weddings to pay for, Hope,” he informed her. “Not certain the Schroeder name holds the sway you think it does, but regardless, I just wanna see if I have this clear. Your play to hurt me because you’re not getting your way is to threaten my livelihood and take away my ability to see to my children?”
“You’re a good cop, Hix. You’ll find another job in another county or some city, where you always really wanted to be anyway.”
He could not believe he was hearing this.
“So your play is to try to take me away from my kids?”
She gave a casual shrug but her eyes were flashing with fury.
He was hearing this.
He just couldn’t believe it.
“And you don’t even know Greta, but you know Lou, and you’re gonna try to throw them under the bus to have your tantrum?”
“Greta should know better than to jump on a man before the ink is dry on his divorce papers.”
“Greta didn’t pick me up, Hope. That was me.”
“I don’t need the details,” she hissed, coming up on her toes to do it. She rolled back and continued, “But like you said, she got what she wanted, she lives with the consequences. She’s probably been panting after you since she got into town, lying in wait.”
“I’ve never seen the woman before Saturday.”
“Maybe not, Hix, but for sure she’s seen you. All the women have seen you. And she’s a woman, she saw her shot, so don’t be stupid. You didn’t pick her up. You didn’t do anything but be Hixon Drake, which is all you ever needed to be.”
He had no idea what that remark meant.
And he didn’t give a crap.
“Leave Greta alone,” he warned.
Her face twisted, and suddenly, she wasn’t beautiful at all.
“Kiss my ass.”