She was out of it, unable to process the situation she was in, and my heart went out to her.

She then seemed to focus, but it was on Mag’s condo.

And as she looked around, something came over her.

When it did, she said quietly, “Even this is temporary. It isn’t even really yours.”

“Nik—” Mag began in a tone that shared he clearly understood these odd words.

She turned her attention to him, and she was herself again, the woman who walked in with a purpose, feeling she had every right to be there.

Oh man.

“You should be resting,” she declared then her eyes came to me. “He should be resting.”

“I—”

I didn’t get any further than Mag had.

“Don’t let him give you any of that ‘I have a high threshold for pain’ garbage.”

Uh-oh.

Someone was pissing on her patch with her I know how he’s playing this, because, you see, I know him through and through, including how to deal with him, so let me instruct you for the time you have with him before I take over again bullshit.

The “take over again” part being something she thought she was going to do when she showed at the door five minutes ago.

That was when I felt something come over me.

“Pain is pain,” she went on.

I stood there, silent.

She continued with her lesson.

“So, you really shouldn’t let him hand you any of his commando crap.”

“Nik—” Mag tried again.

Her eyes shot right to him. “Has she been struck mute?”

Uh-oh.

I felt it happening.

Now something had come over Mag.

Time for me to intervene.

“Uh, just to say, Nikki?” I called, and she looked to me. “Danny’s the one who sustained the injury. He knows how it feels. He also knows where his pain pills are. I’ve told him to rest, repeatedly. If he refuses to do that, he’s a grown man, it’s his choice.”

But something else came over her the second I started speaking.

And it was back to wounded when her gaze shifted to Mag.

“Danny?” she whispered.

“Fuck,” he muttered.

“Okay—” I started.

“Danny?” she shrieked so loud, I winced.

Good God.

“Nik—” Mag began yet again.

“Fuck you!” she shouted.

Oh boy.

“We’re not doin’ this,” Mag growled.

“Danny? Danny?” She mocked then tossed a hand my way. “You let some woman you’ve known, what? A day? You let her call you Danny?”

It was a guess, but I figured he hadn’t let Nikki call him that.

“Let’s go back to the beginning of this visit where I said now’s not a good time,” Mag stated. “And just to add, with this shit, it’s never a good time.”

She turned to me.

Oh boy!

“Just so you know, we were together a long time. We talked about marriage. Kids. And between us breaking up and you, there’ve been about a hundred other yous,” she shared.

I was really glad I knew that already or that would have been a blow.

Something she intended.

Jeez.

Seemed like Mag’s ex was kind of a bitch.

That was when Mag curled my front to his side and bit out, “Nik, stop it.”

She didn’t take her eyes from me.

“So, just sayin’, those hundred yous have yet to replace me.”

“I have a feeling that’s changing as we speak,” I muttered.

“You’d be wrong,” she snapped.

“Just to make shit clear,” Mag said, and I looked up at him to see, surprisingly, he was addressing me, “me and Nik, we didn’t break up. She dumped me.”

“Okay,” I said slowly, not super sure why he was making that point.

I turned my attention back to her, seeing as she turned her attention back to Mag to declare, “I did not dump you. I left and told you when you got yourself sorted to come back.”

“No, you didn’t leave. You kicked my ass out and told me not to come back until I made the changes in my life that you required,” he returned.

All right.

Damn.

Just…

Damn.

He was holding me, but I’d seen enough of them, what with my mom and Rob going at each other all the time.

I knew what a lovers’ quarrel looked like.

And this conversation had suddenly morphed into that.

I didn’t like it when Mom and Rob did it.

But I really didn’t feel like being an innocent bystander during one that involved a guy I was falling for and had a strong suspicion I could spend the rest of my life with.

I started to shift away to give them some privacy and at the same time reevaluate my own circumstances, which might require me buying stock in Kleenex before I moved in with Tex, but I got nowhere as Mag’s arm around my shoulders clamped so hard, a smidge harder and there’d be pain.

“Mag, it’s for our future,” she retorted.

“Nik, honest to fuck, can you be standing right there lookin’ at me as I am right now and think we have a future?” Mag returned.

“It’s for the best,” she shot back.

“It was for your best,” he volleyed.

“It’s for our best,” she rejoined.

God.

I really did not want to be standing right here.

“I was done havin’ this conversation months ago, I can say without doubt I’m seriously done havin’ it now,” he told her.

“It isn’t done until it’s done,” she stated.

“By that you mean, it isn’t done until you get what you want,” he translated.

I wondered if I closed my eyes, held my breath and concentrated hard enough, if I’d become invisible so I could spirit away.

Second choice, spontaneously combust.

“By that I mean, we aren’t done,” she fired back.

Oh God.

I looked to the floor and kept my eyes there, especially after I felt Mag go completely still.

I knew what that meant.

And as it meant what it meant, why wouldn’t he let me go?

I wouldn’t make a fuss.

I wouldn’t cause a scene.

Okay, so, he was the nicest guy I’d ever met, he was great in bed, he was funny, he thought I was pretty, he liked John Wick and Metallica, and he took a bullet for me.

All huge positives in brand-new boyfriend material.

So, sure, we’d known each other all of five days, but I still knew I’d grieve his loss longer and harder than I did my ex-boyfriend who’d been in my life over two years.

But he’d loved this woman. He’d wanted a life with her.

So, if that would make him happy, and he had a shot at getting that back, I wasn’t going to insert myself into that.

I was, however, definitely buying stock in Kleenex.

“Nik, fuck, I…” Mag started quietly.

I tried to carefully pull away.

He held tight.

Why wouldn’t he let me go?

“That’s why you’re here,” he kept talking quietly. “Whoever told you I got injured told you about Evie.”

She did not confirm this.

Though I’d figured that out around the pissing-on-her-patch part of the conversation.