He looked away, realizing that he didn’t have an argument for that. Conversation had flowed easily that night once he’d gotten over his initial anger. For a couple of hours it had been surprisingly easy to forget the antagonism. The betrayal. The pain.
She met his eyes steadily, their gazes colliding for several tense moments. He was unsettled to realize that there was zero agenda on her face. He knew all of Madison’s various looks, and at the moment she was determined, yes, but also confused. She really couldn’t seem to understand why he wouldn’t want to talk to her.
“Madison,” he said quietly, “you divorced me. Remember? You left me for another man, filed the papers, initiated the end of our marriage. And you’re confused about why I don’t want to be best friends?”
She opened her mouth, but before she could respond, Cole Sharpe appeared in Jackson’s doorway.
“?’Sup, Burke.”
“Cole.”
Cole’s eyebrow lifted slightly at the tension in Jackson’s voice, and his eyes shifted to Madison before he grinned knowingly.
“Mollie?” he mouthed.
Unfortunately, Madison chose exactly that moment to turn around.
“Mollie?” Madison asked.
Shit.
Cole’s smile slipped, giving Jackson a briefly panicked expression before he glanced down at the cell in his right hand. “Sorry, gotta take this,” he said, pointing down to the completely blank screen.
Jackson gave Cole a withering look, and the other man apologized with his eyes as he lifted his cell to take the imaginary phone call.
Jackson closed the door with a slam before turning back to a cold-eyed Madison.
“Why would that man think I’m Mollie?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Jackson said, rubbing a hand over his face and going to sit across from her. “Maybe because she’s my roommate?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Only because you were using her to get to me.”
He had to laugh at that. “You are a fucking piece of work. How can I make it clear that we’re over? That my actions stopped being about you a long time ago?”
She ignored this. “I approved Mollie moving in because I thought it would be good for her to have family in New York.”
“She’s been in New York for years, and you haven’t given a shit. Plus, she’s twenty-eight. She doesn’t need your approval.”
Madison huffed. “You’ve always been so ready to defend her. Perfect, genius Mollie could never do anything wrong in your eyes.”
A lightbulb clicked on. This was why Madison was trying to sink her fangs into him. Not because she wanted him, but because she didn’t want anyone else to have him, least of all her sister.
He gave her a slow smile. “That’s always bothered you, hasn’t it? My friendship with Mollie?”
“Well, I certainly didn’t expect that she’d be all buddy-buddy with your colleagues.”
“Do you even hear yourself?” Jackson asked. “You don’t get to fucking divorce me and then pop up whenever you want, digging into my life. And for what it’s worth, Mollie’s never even met these guys.”
Madison folded her arms over her chest. “And yet they know her name. Which means that you must talk about her.”
“Yeah, I talk about her. In fact, I tried to set her up with one of them.”
Madison’s eyes went from annoyed to curious. “Mollie’s dating?”
“It didn’t work out,” he said gruffly.
“Oh. Well, no matter,” Madison said with a little wave of her hand. “I didn’t come to talk about Molls.”
Of course not. Your sister’s only as relevant as whatever she can do for you. “Maddie—” he began wearily, already regretting his decision to give her an opening.
“No, hear me out,” she said quietly, eyes pleading. “You don’t have to say a word. I just need to get this off my chest, okay?”
He grunted, not really sure if he was giving consent or not, but she took it as such and kept talking.
“I want you to give me another chance.”
He stared at her. “A chance for what?”
She licked her lips nervously. “A chance for us.”
Hell. He couldn’t say he was surprised. He’d known on some level that this was coming. But hearing it out loud he felt…nothing. Absolutely nothing.
“Your new guy dump you?” he asked.
She ignored the question. “I love you, Jackson. I’ve always loved you. And you love me.”
“So far from it, Maddie.”
“I think you’re wrong,” she said quietly. “We’ve both made mistakes, but doesn’t every couple? Doesn’t every love story go through a rough patch?”
“A rough patch?” he asked incredulously. “You slept with my best friend and God knows how many others. Then when you got caught, you tried to dodge that scandal by making up a different one. You told the media I was the one having an affair. Dozens of them.”
“I didn’t—”
“Don’t,” he said, his voice low and dangerous. “Don’t you dare lie to me about this. Everyone from your sister to my own mother thought I might have been having an affair. Do you have any idea what that does to a man?”
“But—”
He leaned forward, giving vent to some of his anger. “You wanted to talk, let’s talk. Here’s something I’ve always wanted to know: how is it that the very same women you named came forward and confessed to an affair? Women I’d never heard of, much less met. Much less fucked.”