Page 96 of Fracture
“Sure, but that doesn’t mean you have to make it easy. I’ll come get you and we’ll get together with everyone. Come up with a plan. Make sure he knows he can’t just end things without a conversation.”
“I don’t know.”
“Get your ass downstairs now. I’ll be there in ten.”
“Okay.”
Lorelei hung up the phone and sighed. Was she wrong? She thought Vinnie felt the same.
She shook her head and walked out, leaving her bags packed by the door, the note still on top. Whatever he had to say, he was going to say it to her face.
Karli was alone when she pulled into the lot, which Lorelei was grateful for. She liked Cade, but she needed her cousin for this one.
“Frannie said to come to Shelter in the Storm. We’re all going to meet there. It’s quiet today.”
Lorelei nodded, trying to make sense of her jumbled thoughts while Karli drove across town to the shelter. Karli parked on the street close by, and they walked two blocks. Frannie welcomed them in, guiding them to a living room at the front of the old house turned shelter.
Jessica, Raina, and Dawn were already there when Karli and Lorelei arrived. Mackenzie and Edie showed up as Stacey walked down the hallway from her office, then they all turned to Lorelei.
“He packed your things?” Edie asked.
Lorelei nodded. “I didn’t go through the apartment, but that’s what it looked like.”
“Are you sure he wasn’t packing to take you on a trip?” Mackenzie asked.
“With only my suitcases?” Lorelei replied.
“Yeah, probably not,” Raina said.
“What did you guys talk about the last time you saw him?” Stacey asked.
“My ex-boyfriend. I had a memory come back about him, and I mentioned him,” Lorelei admitted, picking at her nail beds.
“You didn’t tell me that,” Karli said.
Lorelei shrugged. She looked up at Raina. “I called Adam yesterday about it. He knew the guy. Told me I was better off without him. Mark wasn’t right for me. He was… too neat.”
“It’s bad to be neat?” Dawn asked.
Lorelei shook her head. “No, but it’s bad when his clothes had to be perfectly pressed and he didn’t like me doing my job.”
“Why would he not like your job? You’re a badass,” Karli said.
“Thanks, but it seemed he wanted to be the strong one. He wanted me to need him. I broke my arm and went right back to work when my cast came off. He dumped me because I didn’t need him anymore, and he liked me relying on him for everything.” Lorelei’s throat tingled with shame.
“He wasn’t worthy of you,” Frannie said. “But Vinnie isn’t like that. Do you know about his family?”
Lorelei nodded. “He told me his grandmother raised him.”
“Did he tell you how he met Marcus?”
Lorelei tried to remember the story but came up blank. She knew they had history, but Vinnie never shared the story.
“Vinnie is a good man. One of the best. But he’s never had anyone who wanted him in their life. He’s always done what you just said and thrown himself into work. When things get hard, he digs into his job. He’s smart, and he’s capable, and he has a bright future, but there’s a reason he’s single. And it’s not because he’s not a good man.”
“You can only push someone so far,” Stacey said to Frannie. “If he’s not willing to try to make a relationship work, it shouldn’t be up to Lorelei to do the work for both of them.”
Frannie shook her head. “No, it shouldn’t. I agree. But I also think Vinnie’s scared. I think he heard about an ex and assumed there was more there. That he immediately saw himself as not good enough. And he panicked. Especially since you didn’t go home last night.”