Read Online Melting The Ice by Amy Leigh Napier - Free Book Online

He’d lied, cheated and stole from her on numerous occasions.  It had seemed the worse he treated her, the more determined she had been to have him.  When she had found out she was pregnant right after graduation, she’d been ecstatic believing that Patrick would settle down and marry her.   She’d soon learned the error of her ways.  He had not only not wanted to marry her; he had refused to accept any kind of responsibility and even accused her of trying to pawn someone else’s child off on him.  She had spent most of her pregnancy in tears but had been thrilled when Jameson had been born. 
     
    For the first fourteen years of her son’s life she went back and forth with Patrick.  They would date for a couple of months and every time she’d become complacent, he’d pulled the rug out from under her.  There had always been other women and several paternity suits had even been filed against him; Jameson had a couple of younger brothers and a sister that he didn’t even know.  The final straw had been Ava reading about his engagement to another woman in the paper while he was supposedly living with Ava.  All of those out of town business trips had largely been a cover for his relationship with his new fiancé.  The fiancé hadn’t even known about Ava and Jameson.  Macy and Lena had helped her load all of his belongings up and they had hauled it all over to the fiancé’s house in a neighboring town.  Patrick had arrived while they were throwing his belongings into the woman’s yard.  He had talked to her like she was dirt beneath his feet and that more than anything made her finally realize he had never loved her.  Ava had told him to “fuck off” and nothing he had done in the intervening years made her regret her decision. 
     
    He’d married the woman who had watched all the drama unfold in her yard with a helpless expression on her face; they’d divorced within a year due to infidelity on his part which surprised no one except maybe his wife.  He’d tried to come back to Ava but she had learned her lesson with him and it had been easy to turn him away.  The first time she had seen him after that none of the old feelings had returned and she’d known she was free of him for good.  Now that she was a wealthy woman with no need of anything from Patrick, she couldn’t help but resent his lack of financial help with Jameson’s needs while she’d struggled to make ends meet; other than a general loathing, she didn’t have any other feelings for him one way or the other.
     
    “You have Jameson’s number.  Call him.” She was short with her answer.  He reached his hand out as if to touch her but she jerked out of his reach.  The pleading look from the gorgeous green eyes that he had passed on to their son that used to melt her had no effect.
     
    “Don’t you ever miss the way things were with us?” he asked in a husky tone, his eyes beseeching.  She burst out laughing and shook her head in disbelief.
     
    “Are you high?” She stopped laughing and looked at him like he was something she had found on the bottom of her shoe. “Of course I miss being lied to, cheated on, stolen from and talked to like a dog…I mean, what woman wouldn’t miss that?” she asked scathingly.  His eyes narrowed dangerously.
     
    “This is why we could never get along.  You never believed I could change.” He stated accusingly.  She rolled her eyes.
     
    “Maybe but you always proved me right, didn’t you, Pat?” She asked, suddenly exhausted with the entire conversation. “Look, just let it go, okay?  We will never get back together and I am saying never .”
     
    “I heard you were hanging all over some young guy at Hal’s place the other night.” Patrick took a verbal swat at her, his expression turning leering and ugly. “Have you turned into a pedophile, Ava?”
     
    “Go to hell, Patrick.” She said calmly and with that turned and walked away.  Patrick’s caustic laugh