Considering how vehement she’d been, Nick had every intention of respecting her wishes. She was the one who’d been left standing at the altar in front of the whole town, and if Thomas wanted to make peace with her, she had every right to demand that he be the one to make the first move. Nick would have done the same thing if he’d been in her position.
But when he took her home a little later, hanging on to that resolve wasn’t as simple as he’d have liked. The minute she stepped into her house and looked around, she stiffened, her blue eyes dark with distress. Thomas’s things were spread about her living room and the rest of the house—everywhere she looked, she was reminded of him.
She’d known they were there, of course, but that didn’t make the situation any less painful for her. Swearing, Nick remembered too late that he and Joe and Zeke had promised to take all of Thomas’s things over to his mother’s so she could store them for him until he made arrangements to have everything shipped back to Chicago. They should have done that before Merry went home, dammit, but with everything that had happened last night, he’d completely forgotten about it. And now Merry was the one having to pay the price for that.
He only had to take one look at the rigid set of her jaw to know that she was hurting.
“Look, there’s no reason that you have to deal with this,” he said gruffly, moving to step in front of her and block her view of the rest of the house. “Go to your mother’s for the rest of the day, and I’ll call your brothers to help me pack up Thomas’s stuff and get it out of here. You don’t even have to see it.”
He was giving her an easy way out—all she had to do was politely thank him and turn around and walk out. But she’d never taken the easy way out and she wasn’t about to start now. This was her house—and her mess to clean up.
Straightening her shoulders, she lifted her chin. “There’s no reason to drag my brothers into this. If you’ll help me, the two of us can have everything packed and out of here within an hour.”
“You know I’ll help,” he replied, scowling, “but you don’t have to punish yourself this way.”
She didn’t consider it punishment. “I’m putting my house back in order and reclaiming it for myself. I’ll feel better about myself if I have a hand in that.”
Put that way, he had no choice but to admit she was right, so they spent the rest of the morning repacking Thomas’s possessions in the boxes that were still in Merry’s garage. If it had been left to him, Nick would have dumped everything in garbage sacks and hauled it out that way, but Merry would have none of it. She meticulously folded every piece of clothing before putting it away in a box, then wrapped any breakable personal items in newspaper to protect them in transit. And with every box that was taped shut and hauled out to her truck, Merry became quieter and quieter. She was packing away her hopes and dreams and what might have been, and it hurt.
She didn’t cry, but the pain in her eyes was impossible to hide, and just watching her made Nick want to throw something. Damn Thomas’s miserable hide! He wasn’t going to get away with this! The bastard needed to know that the pain he’d caused her hadn’t stopped when she’d left the church.
“You’re not going with me to Mrs. Cooper’s,” he said flatly when the last box was carried out of the house and loaded into her truck.
“But you’ll need help unloading everything.”
“I can handle it.”
Not giving her a chance to argue further, he took the keys from her and climbed behind the wheel of her truck. When he drove off a few seconds later and glanced in the rearview mirror, she was still standing where he’d left her in the drive, her shoulders drooping, looking lost and forlorn and so damn lonely that it hurt just to look at her.
It was then that he decided that he was taking matters into his own hands and calling Thomas.
Merry would, of course, be furious with him when she found out what he’d done, but that couldn’t be helped. He couldn’t stand seeing her so unhappy. If that meant he had to track down Thomas and drag him back to her, then by God, that’s what he was going to do. Merry might resent it at first, but that was a chance he was just going to have to take. Once she and Thomas made up, she’d forgive him quick enough.
His mind made up, he drove straight to Mrs. Cooper’s. He’d never cared for her himself—she had a sharp tongue and little sympathy for other people—but when she opened the door to him and saw Merry’s truck in her drive, her first concern was for Merry. “Oh, Nick, how is she? I wanted to call her, but she was so upset yesterday, and I thought it might be better if I kept my distance.”
“She’s coming to grips with everything,” he said, “but I don’t think she feels like talking to anyone yet.”
“Of course not. I understand.” Looking past him to the truck in the drive, she didn’t have to ask what was in all the boxes in the back. “I suppose you’ve brought Thomas’s things.”
He nodded solemnly. “Since he gave up his apartment last week, I didn’t know what else to do. I was hoping you’d heard from him.”
“No,” she said regrettably. “I left a message with his old law firm in Chicago in case he went back there, but he hasn’t called. I think he’s too embarrassed.”
After what he’d done, he should have felt a hell of a lot more than just embarrassment, Nick thought irritably, but that wasn’t something he felt comfortable telling Maxine Cooper. She was his mother—she had to defend him even when there was no excuse for what he’d done. “If he does call, I’d appreciate it if you’d tell him I need to talk to him. Now, where would you like me to put his things?”
At her direction, he stored the boxes in her garage and worked up a sweat doing it. And with every box, every piece of furniture he lifted, the more his resentment grew. When he’d first realized that Thomas was actually going to jilt Merry, he’d been stunned, but now he had to wonder why he’d been so surprised. An only child born late in life to parents who’d long since given up hope that they would ever have children, Thomas had been spoiled and pampered and indulged from the moment he realized he only had to cry to get what he wanted. And anytime he got into trouble, his mother had always been there to bail him out and make everything all right. This time, however, she couldn’t do that. Thomas had to clean up his own mess, and by God, Nick was going to see that he did it!
His jaw set, Nick unloaded the last box, accepted Maxine’s thanks, and headed for his office. He’d expected it to take more than a few phone calls to track Thomas down, but he hit pay dirt when he called the manager of the apartment complex where Thomas was living in Chicago when his mother had fallen and broken her hip. Thomas had claimed he’d given the place up once he decided to move back to Liberty Hill months ago, but that, apparently, had been a lie. He still had the apartment.
The son of a bitch! Nick thought furiously. Even then, he’d had doubts. He’d kept a place to go back to in Chicago in case his new life with Merry didn’t work out, and he’d never said a word to anyone. All this time, he’d let Merry think he loved her without reservation when nothing could have been further from the truth.
If he could have gotten his hands on him at that moment, Nick wasn’t sure what he would have done, but it wouldn’t have been pretty. Fortunately for Thomas, he was a thousand miles away, but that didn’t mean Nick couldn’t tell him what he thought of him. In a matter of minutes, he had his new, restricted phone number.
“You son of a bitch!”
To his credit, Thomas didn’t pretend not to recognize his voice. “How’d you find me?”
“It wasn’t difficult once I realized you never gave up your old apartment,” Nick