Slow Burn(62)

    After everything? He was admitting it, wasn’t he? He was admitting that he had abandoned his own child.

    Beth surrendered the baby to him, and he left the kitchen.

    I watched him leave the kitchen, my heart breaking. I fought tears.

    Beth sat down next to me. “What is going on between you and him?”

    Oh God. I sat back in my chair. “I’m so sorry. I swear I didn’t know.”

    She put a hand over her mouth. “There is something. I knew it. There was something about the way he looked at you.”

    “I’m sorry,” I said again. “If he would have told me about you, about everything, I swear that nothing would have happened between us.”

    “What did happen?” she said. “Did he kiss you?”

     I stood up. “Maybe you should talk to Griffin about this.”

    “He did, didn’t he?” She shook her head as if she couldn’t believe it. “What did you do to him? How did you make him do that?”

    I felt like my head was going to explode. “Obviously, it’s a really bad idea for me to be here. I don’t know why he brought me here.” I couldn’t bear to look at her. I felt guilty, even though it wasn’t my fault. And my heart was shattering into a million pieces. Griffin had betrayed me. He’d betrayed both of us.

    I ran out of the apartment, down the stairs as quickly as I could. I ran and ran. I had to get away from him.





Chapter Twelve

    It had been a while since I’d been in Boston, but I found that I still knew my way around. I thought about hitting up some of the bars I used to frequent, but I realized I’d run off with no money at all. Griffin had all the cash. It wasn’t particularly intelligent, was it?

    Well, it was hard to make intelligent decisions when the guy I’d been falling for turned out to be a first-rate bastard.

    I didn’t know what to do.

    I rode the T. (Thankfully, Griffin and I had bought passes earlier, and I had mine on me.) I thought it was random, that I was just riding anyplace.

    But I ended up in a familiar neighborhood.

    I rode the elevator to an apartment I knew.

    He probably wasn’t even there anymore. He’d probably moved.

    He answered the door. “Leigh?”

    I smiled ruefully. “Hi, Axel.” Axel was an old friend. He was one of those trust-fund babies who was flunking out of the Ivy League but seemed to always land of his feet because his dad had enough money to make it go away.

    He and I had sort of had similar approaches to life back when we were close. I partied with him a lot, and we were even kind of fuck buddies before I met Eric. But it was never really romantic or anything. Just convenient.

    If I’d had a best friend besides Stacey, maybe Axel counted.

    Sure, he was snobby, self-absorbed, and a train wreck, but we had history. I could count on him.

    “Come in here,” he said, opening the door wide. “Where the fuck have you been?”

    I groaned. “You don’t want to know.”

    He laughed. “Okay. Well, I guess all that matters is that you’re back.”

    I smiled. “Yeah. I guess so.” I rubbed my face. “I could really use a drink.”

    “You okay?” he said, ushering me inside his apartment. “You look a little lost.”

    “Not okay,” I said.

    “Some guy do you wrong?”

    “How’d you guess?”

    He slung an arm around me. “I know you so well, Leigh. I can’t count the times you’ve shown up at my door post break-up.”

    I guessed it was kind of a habit.

    “Don’t you worry your pretty little head. Axel’s got just the thing for that broken heart of yours.”

* * *

    Axel was wearing plaid pants, a white dress shirt, and a sweater vest. Somehow, he made this look like the cutting edge of fashion. He was a very good-looking guy. He had inherited his mother’s cheek bones and features. His mother was a model from Sweden or something. She was like forty years younger than his dad.

    Axel lounged on the plush couch in his enormous den, a martini glass in one hand. He was shaking his head. “I don’t believe it. A secret kid and a baby-mama? How utterly trailer trash.”