Chapter 8
Mateo rode his wave of anger. It pushed him to get some cleaning done. He couldn’t think with all the clutter and reminders around him.
Once he had a good amount gathered together, he decided to make a run down to the end of the long driveway. He wasn’t sure when the trash pick-up was, but he didn’t care. He wanted the junk gone.
He backed his truck up to the house and began throwing garbage bags and boxes into the back of it. He was determined to get rid of anything that reminded him of his ex, no matter how valuable it might be. Even if he could potentially resell it to offset some of the costs of the renovations, he tossed it. There wasn’t much more he could do to get his fury to subside.
Once he had a full load in the back of the truck, he drove it all the way down the driveway. He was ready to get rid of the hurt that had been hanging all over him. Maybe then he could actually calm down and be a little bit more reasonable.
When he reached the end of the driveway, he realized that he’d forgotten the kitchen trash. He left the truck parked but still running so that he could hear the music on the radio. He jogged up the driveway to get the trash from the kitchen. He didn’t think about the fact that by leaving the truck parked there, he was blocking the driveway of both houses.
He gathered the kitchen trash and a few other things from around the house. While he was there, his cell phone rang. It was a number that he didn’t recognize.
“Hello?”
“I can’t believe that you told your lawyer that you’re refusing to pay alimony. What do you think this is, Mateo? We didn’t sign a prenup.”
Instantly anger flooded him. “You asked for the divorce, Kate. Why should I have to pay you anything?”
“Maybe because I was married to you for long enough? I washed your clothes, I made you dinner. It’s not like that’s worth nothing.”
“No, you’re right. It wasn’t worth nothing to me. I was very grateful for the effort you put in to keep our home clean and functioning. It never bothered me that you didn’t want to work, because you took care of everything at home. But that doesn’t entitle you to any money. You know I have this house to handle now. How am I supposed to do that if you’re cutting into what money I have?”
“Sell the house.”
“I can’t sell the house. Not in the shape it’s in now. Remember, we were supposed to be working on it together?” His voice wavered.
“I remember that you bought that dump and acted like you won the lottery. That’s your mistake, and I’m not going to pay for it.”
“Kate, I bought this house for you—for us. You knew that. You agreed to it. Did you know you were going to divorce me when you watched me sign the papers? Did you?” His voice rose.
“I can see that I can’t talk to you. That temper of yours is exactly why you’re going to be hearing from my lawyer. Let’s see what the judge decides is fair.”
“Kate.” He gritted his teeth. “You can’t take more from me. You’ve already taken everything.”
“Obviously not.” She cleared her throat. “You’re taking this too personally. So it didn’t work out. We can move on. But you’re going to give me what I’m owed Mateo. I will never get the years invested in this marriage back.”
“And I will?” He gripped the phone tightly. “I’m over forty now. I’m not going to have the family you promised me. I don’t have anything.”
“You really think you should be around kids? With your anger problems? I don’t think so, Mateo. Trust me, I did you a favor. Anyway, like I said, you’ll be hearing from my lawyer. This can be simple or this can be complicated. You decide.”
“Kate, it doesn’t have to be like this.”
“You’re right, it doesn’t. If you’d just cooperate, all of this would be over.”
“It is over. I’m not giving you any money, no matter what you think. You have no ground to stand on. I’m the one that took on all the debt of the marriage, and you have the apartment, which is already paid up for the year. You’re already living on my dime, Kate. How could you ask me for more?”
“You believe what you want to believe, but you will be hearing from my lawyer.” She hung up the phone.
His muscles ached with the amount of hatred that flowed through him. He wished he could take every nice thing he’d ever said to her back, including asking her to marry him. If he had the ability to rewind the past few years, he’d do it without hesitation, and he wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.
He shoved his phone in his pocket. Just when he thought he couldn’t get any angrier, Kate’s call had sent him over the edge. He couldn’t see straight as he lugged the trash bag down toward the pile at the end of the driveway. If someone had told him that love could end up in the disaster that his marriage had become, he never would have looked in his ex’s direction.
A few of his divorced friends said that they didn’t regret their marriage, that there were good memories that made it worth something.
Mateo didn’t feel that way. Any perfect moment between him and Kate was soiled by the vicious way she’d ended things and continued to drag his emotions through a fierce battle. As a result, every time a memory surfaced, it was torture all over again.
His friends assured him that the anger would fade, that his emotions would settle, but so far he didn’t see how that would ever be possible.
Chapter 9
After talking to Hannah, Jillian could breathe again. Her peace was shaky, but it was there.
Hannah was right. If she wanted to meditate, she could find a quiet place to do it. There was no excuse not to find a way to do what she needed to do. Maybe she’d prefer to be in her peaceful home on the peaceful lake in her peaceful neighborhood, but that didn’t appear to be an option at the moment.
As long as Mateo was there and in the mood to blast his music, Jillian wasn’t going to find her peace at home. A little time away would do her some good. She also hoped that she’d be able to come up with some ideas to solve the problem that seemed to exist between them. She didn’t know why Mateo had such an issue with her, but that wasn’t going to stop her from trying to fix it.
She grabbed her purse and keys and stepped outside. Immediately she looked for any sign of Mateo. She didn’t see him, but she heard Mateo’s radio again—only this time it was coming from his truck. He was parked right at the end of their shared driveway.
She lingered by her car for a few minutes, waiting for him to move his truck. When he didn’t, she got into her car and drove down to the end of the driveway. She pulled up near the truck and waited to see if he was going to move out of the way.
After a few moments of waiting, she realized that Mateo wasn’t actually in the truck. Why had he left the truck running at the bottom of the driveway? It crossed her mind that he might be drunk.
“What is going on here?” She parked her car and climbed out to investigate.
When she walked over to the truck, she noticed the pile of trash in the back of it. One of the things in the pile was the large photograph frame that she’d seen when she’d brought over the bottle of wine. The glass was shattered. Maybe he hadn’t thrown the wine bottle after all, but he certainly had broken this.
It occurred to her that she hadn’t even really considered what he might be dealing with—why he was angry. It was clear that something was causing him to be this way. Maybe underneath he was a different person—or maybe he wasn’t. Either way he clearly had some issues that he was dealing with.
She walked back to her car with the intention of driving back up to the house. She would knock on his door and remind him that they shared a driveway. Just as she settled into the driver’s seat, she caught sight of Mateo on his way down the driveway. She took a breath and relaxed. She was sure that once he saw that his truck was blocking her car he’d move it out of the way.
Instead, he dumped the trash bag he carried and then turned back to his truck to unload the remainder of the trash.
Jillian had a
lot of patience but she thought it was unreasonable to not simply back up his truck to allow her past. It would take all of ten seconds. If it wasn’t for the wall that lined the drive she could have gone around him.
She beeped her horn once. He didn’t even look in her direction. Never had she been treated with such blatant disrespect. Frustrated, she rolled down her window.
“Mateo! You need to move your truck.”
“In a minute,” he hollered back and again didn’t bother to look at her.
Jillian was stunned that a person could be so uncooperative. She turned off her car and stared at him. It seemed to her that he was taking a long time to finish on purpose.
“Mateo!” She shouted out the window. “I need to go. Move your truck.”
“I’ll move it when I’m ready.” He shot her a look and then turned back to the trash.
Jillian was at a loss. She wanted to be patient and calm, but the time for that had passed. Mateo was clearly not interested in being the slightest bit neighborly.
“Last chance. Move your truck.” She beeped the horn.
He shook his head and ignored her.
As her peace disappeared, her anger returned. Not once in her life had she done anything rash or violent. In fact, even when she was angry she was considered to be one of the most rational minds in the room. When Mateo turned away from her again—with complete disregard—what started as a trickle of frustration became a flood of anger.
She jumped out of her car. It wasn’t until that moment that she realized what she was going to do. He was not going to stop her from getting out of her own driveway.
She climbed into the driver’s seat of his truck. There was no turning back now. She threw it into drive and surged up the driveway. The sudden movement caused some of the trash in the bed of the truck to spill out around Mateo. Her heart pounded hard as she looked in the rearview mirror. His shocked expression was only temporary, she knew. Soon it would be rage.
She parked the truck and turned off the ignition. All the way from the end of the driveway she could hear Mateo’s shouts.
“What are you doing? Get out of my truck!” He ran toward her faster than she’d expected him to.
She looked toward her house, but knew there wasn’t much chance of getting to it before he reached her. He was already halfway up the driveway. She grabbed the keys out of the ignition and jumped out of the truck.
As she backed away from it, her breath caught in her throat.
What was he capable of? What had she done? She felt ridiculous and furious at the same time. She was embarrassed that she’d taken the truck, but there was no way to go back and change things. Mateo brought something out in her that she’d never expected to experience.
Chapter 10
Her presence stoked Mateo’s irritation. He couldn’t get away from Kate, and apparently, he couldn’t get away from Jillian either. A part of him knew that it would be simple just to move his truck, but he didn’t want to. He didn’t want to be interrupted any more. He didn’t want to be controlled by the will of a woman.
If she wanted to leave, she could wait until he was done. It made no logical sense, but he didn’t care. He couldn’t get his point across to Kate but he could have the upper hand with Jillian. It crossed his mind that she hadn’t done anything to truly deserve his behavior, but he wasn’t interested in fairness.
When Jillian got out of her car, he only caught a glimpse of her before she was in his truck. It took him a second to process what was happening. A moment later, she was driving it away from him, leaving him in a pile of empty boxes and garbage.
He was so shocked that he couldn’t even react at first. What kind of person just got into someone else’s truck and drove it off? His first judgment of her being an impossibly positive pushover was clearly wrong.
He couldn’t stop the string of ugly language that came out of his mouth. He shouted at her, loud enough to disrupt a flock of geese that had been walking up the side of his yard. He ran up the driveway after her. He pumped his legs so hard that his muscles burned, but he couldn’t catch up. By the time he reached her, she’d already parked and turned off his truck. When she climbed out, he was there to face her.
“What are you thinking? I could have you arrested!”
She stared back at him, her face tense and her hands in fists at her sides. In one hand, she held his truck keys. He reached for them, but she pulled back and scowled at him.
“It’s a shared driveway! You can’t just block it!” She swung his keys in the air. “These don’t give you the power to trap me in my own home.”
“You’re out of control! First you barge into my house and now you steal my truck! I told you I would move it when I was done. Are you too important to wait a minute?”
“I didn’t steal it. I moved it! I waited much longer than a minute! Again, instead of trying to cause a problem by calling the cops, I did what you should have done. I don’t know where you’re from or what you’ve been through, but there is no excuse for the way that you’ve been treating me ever since you moved in here. I have been as polite and welcoming as I could be, and you have been nothing but rude! Everyone has their limit, Mateo!”
“You call being nosy polite?” He took a step closer to her as his hands tensed. “You’re absolutely right. You know nothing about me or what I’ve been through. You think a little meditation is going to fix everything? Well, it’s not! You want me to be polite? Fine! Please, Jillian, give me back my keys and get the hell off my property.” He grabbed for the keys again.
Jillian pulled her hand back out of his reach. “Or what?” She met his eyes.
He was a little distracted by their ice-blue shade. After a quick blink his anger resurged. “Give me the keys.”
“Are you going to threaten me, Mateo? Are you so big and bad that you think you’re going to scare me?” Her lips tightened as she glared at him.
“I haven’t threatened you.” He spoke through gritted teeth. “Do you want me to?”
“How do you live like this? With all this anger inside of you?” She shook her head. “It must be exhausting.”
“You don’t know anything about me, Jillian. But I can promise you this—I will be getting my keys back, and you’re going to regret this little stunt.” His heart pounded so heavily that he couldn’t hear his own words. The urge to wrench his keys out of her hand was overwhelming, but he resisted.
“If I give them back to you, how do I know you won’t try to run me over with your truck?”
Wickedness surged through him as he met her eyes and smirked. “Is that it, Jillian? Are you afraid of me?” He took another step forward. “You really think I’m going to run you over with my truck? Is that the monster that you think I am?” Even as he spoke the words, he knew that was what she saw. She saw the monster he wanted to believe that he wasn’t.
“I don’t know.” She stared back into his eyes as she stammered out her words.
He held her gaze and waited for the accusations. He waited for her to tell him that he was crazy, that he was a terrible person. Instead, she only continued to look into his eyes. The intensity of her search forced him to look away.
“Mateo.”
“Don’t.” He had no idea what she was about to say, but he knew that he didn’t want to hear it. The way she said his name—with a softness around it—stirred a strange feeling within him.
He held out his hand. “Give me back my keys. Now.”
“No.” She took another step away from him. Her back was against the side of his truck.
He put his hands on either side of the truck, trapping her between his muscular arms as he met her eyes again. “I’m not asking you, Jillian. Give me back my keys.” He stared into her eyes as fury throbbed through him. He expected her to shy back, or maybe even to spit in his face. Instead, she held his gaze without a hint of fear.
“It doesn’t have to be like this, Mateo. We can reach an understanding.”
“Are you crazy? You
just stole my truck. Give me back my keys, or the only understanding you’re going to get is from the lawyer that you have to hire!”
She shied back then, as his anger was unleashed yet again. For a split second he was certain that he’d scared her, and to his surprise, he regretted it. A moment later all of that sympathy was gone.
“Go get them!” She threw the keys across the yard into some of the brush that needed to be cleared.
“Seriously?” He glared at her and slammed one of his hands into the side of the truck.
He ignored the fact that he’d left a dent in his own truck, then took off at a run to find his keys. He heard her as she ran back down the driveway. Then he heard the sound of her car roaring away.
He clenched his jaw as he searched through the brush for his keys. Thorns and sharp branches tore at his hands. He had work gloves in the house, but he didn’t bother to get them.
He ignored the pain as he finally found them amid gnarled roots. He held them tight in his hand as he looked back down the driveway. The woman was bold—he had to give her credit for that. He hadn’t anticipated that she could be so spontaneous or fierce.
As much as he wanted to hate her, a part of him wanted to know more about her. How did a woman like her see his behavior and still want to reach some kind of understanding? She didn’t threaten to have him arrested. She didn’t call him all the terrible things that Kate would have done.
Instead, when faced with his fury, she had taken the time to look deeper. The entire experience left him feeling unsettled, not just because of anger, but because he had no idea what to think about the feelings she seemed to be stirring within him.
Not that it mattered. He’d be lucky if she didn’t spray him with Mace the next time she saw him.
Chapter 11
It was in the moment that Mateo had trapped Jillian against the truck that she’d thought about calling the police. No man had ever put her in that position before. But when she’d looked into his eyes, the urge to call for help faded.
What she saw when he had looked back at her was a deep-rooted grief. It was more intense than any grief she’d seen in the eyes of any of her clients. Sometimes she worked with people that had given up on life.
Forty and Free: A Sweet Romance Series Bundle - Books 1 - 4 Page 28
