I would never do that! It is better to have loved and lost. Please give us a chance. All we have to fear is fear itself.
All of them, every single cliché, sounded utterly hollow in her head.
So she just spoke the truth.
“Well, I do,” she said softly. “I want to feel the kind of love that turns your world upside down and brings tears to your eyes just thinking about it. I want my one and only, Dusty. And, you know what? I would take onedayof that kind of love because I’ve never felt it.”
He seemed to inch back at the power of her words, staring at her in stunned silence.
“So, I’m here to say goodbye,” she finished.
“Really?”
“Well, what else would we say when you take off for Vermont? And, don’t worry, you’re not responsible for me. You never led me on or made promises you didn’t keep. We’re good.”
“Oh, Tessa.” He dropped his head with a grunt. “I’m just not ready for what you want yet.”
She lifted a shoulder, undaunted, becauseshewas ready. “But why run away to Vermont?”
“Because it’s far from you.”
She flinched. “Ouch.”
“I meant that as a compliment.”
“I’ve heard better,” she cracked.
“Listen, Tess. This scares me. You scare me. Love scares me. And the kind I see with you…” He shook his head. “No, sorry. I can’t take that chance again.”
The words twisted her chest. She wasn’t worth a risk, even the risk of real love.
“I should go,” she said quietly.
He moved then, stepping forward. “Tessa—wait.” He reached for her and drew her closer, touching her cheek with the gentlest brush of his fingers. “I thought you were just fun and then I found out you were…so much more.”
The words were barely out before he leaned in and kissed her—slow, full of regret, and everything he couldn’t say. She kissed him back, because it might be the last time, and she wanted to remember exactly how a kiss like this felt.
When they parted, she stepped back, taking an unsteady breath. “Bye.”
“Bye, Tess.”
She turned and walked out the door, waiting until she was halfway out of his neighborhood before the first sob escaped.
And once it did, there was no stopping it. She cried like she hadn’t in years. For what was, what could’ve been, and what Dusty wasn’t brave enough to try.
Guess what, Vivien?Girls like Tessadocry. A lot.
“Iknow you want to get back, Mags, but we’re coming up on ten hours in the car.” Jo Ellen re-situated herself in the low-slung seat next to Maggie, wrapped in a cardigan she’d “borrowed” days ago and apparently was never giving up.
“I can read the clock, Jo. You know I have to be there when Atlas’s grandparents arrive tomorrow morning. I need to stake my claim and make those people tremble in fear of me.”
Ever since Eli had texted earlier today to suggest Maggie cut her visit short since those Danes people were coming to Destin, Maggie couldn’t settle down.
Jo Ellen, bless her heart, had agreed that they should abandon West Palm Beach, where they’d been lollygagging like the rich and famous, and drive straight through to Destin to make it home by nightfall.
But they hadn’t counted on an accident that practically shut down the turnpike and had them sitting in a line of traffic ten miles long for more than two hours. That turned an already grueling eight-hour drive into…a nightmare.
Now it was ten o’clock on Friday night and she wasnotin her jammies sipping Sleepytime tea and judging other people’sbad decisions onHouse Hunters. Instead, she was pedal-to-the-metal in the dark on Interstate 10, driving a manual transmission sports car that obeyed her every command.
