“Were you?” Gone was the laughter, the bright eyes. Her lips were pressed into a hard line and the angry furrow between her brows was one I’d never really had directed at me.
“Why wouldn't ?"
“Actually, I turned down the position. You didn’t give me a chance to say it earlier, but I was planning to stay.” The only other time I’d ever heard her voice sounding so dead was the day she told me her father had died. “For you.”
“You shouldn’t have done that,” I answered honestly. I never wanted her to give up her plans for me. That wasn’t the Charlie I knew.
“Well, I did. Because you made me realize it wasn’t the only important thing in my life.” She was doing that thing where she tried to be strong, but I heard the reed-thin sound to her voice. “It’s ironic, isn’t it? The one guy I fall for and actually think won’t leave me is the one who does.”
“Don’t say that.” All my life, I’d been working to prove myself to my father. I’d dealt with the guilt from leaving my family, abandoning Grandma Dorothy. Charlie knew this. And yet the moment I saw her take a step away from me as I sat up to go to her, I would have given up everything I’d earned to have her happy again.
“Why not? It’s the truth.”
I shifted under the sheet. “Believe me or not, but I was gonna tell you. Last night just wasn’t the right time.”
Her voice hardened. She was turning to stone right in front of my eyes. Because of me. “How long have you known?”
“Does it matter?” There was no way she’d forgive me now.
“It matters to me.”
“Look Charlie, things between us are still new. We’re still getting used to…whatever this is. I didn’t want to ruin anything.”
“Don’t you think moving halfway across the country is going to have an impact on whatever this is?” Normally the snarky tone she’d take when she argued would bring a smile to my face, but this time it made my stomach sink.
“Can we not talk about this now? It’s early and we’re both tired.” And the last thing I wanted to do was have a conversation that could possibly bring about the end of us when we’d barely even begun.
She was silent for a long moment. Long enough that I thought maybe she’d agree to drop it. Then she moved quickly to tug on her jeans and slip into her flats. She was still wearing my shirt. For some reason that stood out in my mind. Like as long as she still had something of mine we’d always be connected.
“What are you doing?” I asked, sitting straight up.
“I think it’s best if I leave. I’m gonna go stay at a hotel for the night. While you’re at work tomorrow, I’ll pack up so I won’t be here when you get back.”
“Wait a damn minute.” I wanted to get up, to stop her, but she was already slinging her purse over her shoulder. By the time I hopped up and drug on a pair of sweats, she was already striding to the front door.
“Don’t worry about it, Liam. We’ll figure everything out when you get back.”
“Dammit, Charlie. What are you doing?” Thunder rolled and I had to raise my voice over it.
“I’m leaving you before you have to make the hard decision to leave me first. I knew this was a stupid thing for me to do and I did it anyway. For you.”
Then she spun around and slammed out the door before I could tug on my shoes and follow her. By the time I reached my truck, she was already peeling out into the heavy downpour of the sudden Florida storm. My hands fused to my steering wheel as I followed her out into the rain and onto the highway. All I could picture was her face and how I didn’t want it to be the way we ended things.
Chapter Twenty Five
Charlie
The rain suited my mood.I wanted to drown in it, hide in it. But most of all, I wanted to run…and I hated myself for it. The second I saw Liam’s acceptance letter it was like the floor had been torn right out from under me. I wanted to scream and cry and rage, so I did. In between stop lights and on long stretches of road. I screamed and tears poured from my eyes. It was so early, there was barely any traffic.
There was no one to see me break down. No one to save me now that I’d left the one person who’d always been there.
I was truly alone now.
I took a curve going a little too fast and slightly tapped the brakes. At first I thought it was my car. Maybe the damn thing had finally given up the ghost, but no. My car skidded across the rain-slick streets and began to hydroplane across three lanes of traffic, right in front of the semi in the inside lane next to me.
Even though my head screamed at me not to slam my foot on the brakes, my body reacted without thought. All I could think was I needed to stop before I slammed through the guard rail and into oncoming traffic. Everything happened so fast, but slow at the same time. The time in which I spent spinning across two lanes of traffic on the interstate and then into the grassy median seemed to take an eternity.
I braced for impact, but the muddy grass slowed me down—or maybe it was the death-stomp I had on the brake. Either way, my car came to a sickening halt facing north on the southbound side of the interstate.
