“Hallie…” he whispered, wishing he could explain what she needed to hear but also knowing she wouldn’t believe him.
She jerked free of him again. “Don’t, Jacob. Don’t call me that. Don’t touch me.”
His heart shattered all over again as he stared at her listlessly. “You won’t understand why it has to happen this way. Not until things settle.”
Once again, she scoffed. Her eyes remained locked elsewhere. They were standing outside of her home and all she had to do was run up a few steps to hide away in her home. She was giving him closure. He could see that now. Even in the end, she was allowing him to finish what he had to say.
Guilt burned through him, painfully, agonizingly. “I will always love you, Hallie…”
At that, her head whipped around and she glowered at him. That look alone shredded the last ounce of hope that they would survive this.
Survivehim.
Hallie turned on her heel and stomped up the stairs to her house. She didn’t utter a single word. Instead, she swung the door open, stepped inside, and slammed the door shut. It rattled the whole house, and he flinched.
That could have gone better.
Or maybe he was just fooling himself.
This was why he didn’t date. This was why he didn’t want connections here. He’d lost his brother and his best friend when he’d chosen his career over those relationships. At the time it had felt right. Had it hurt? Of course. But it had nothing on the pain that sliced through him right now.
Jacob rubbed his fist over his heart, pushing until he could feel it bruise.
He’d made the right decision—the impossible choice.
It had been the right thing.
For both of them.
So why did it feel like the rug had been pulled out from under him?
Why did it feel so…
Wrong.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
The phrase ‘time loses all meaning’had once been something Hallie thought romantic. She’d thought it meant that someone could get lost in time when they were with the right person. That somehow, being in love or simply loving another soul would be enough to make time fly or stand still. There was no measure in that regard.
Romantic.
Yeah, that was once how she’d felt.
And she’d experienced that kind of exciting loss of time when she was with Jacob. She could spend hours talking to him, watching him work, or just being in his company and suddenly the day had slipped away from her.
Unfortunately, the phrase was less romantic than she’d thought.
Because she felt like she’d been locked in some kind of time warp. There were moments of her day when she completely forgot that Jacob had broken things off with her. She’d allowed herself to live in a reality where she woke up in the morningexcited to head over to his place so she could just hang out only to have the cold, hard truth land on her with a vengeance.
Seconds of happiness were fleeting and they slipped between her fingers. Then the bone crushing pain of loss dragged on, reminding her that she was human with a broken heart and nothing to show for it.
That was how it felt now, sitting in her room as she rifled through the pictures she had in her little box. So many of these images she’d captured were of the man she’d fallen in love with. So many highlighted the man she had given her heart and her trust to.
What a terrible, awful mistake that had been.
Her thoughts slipped away to the first time she’d stolen a kiss from him—before she’d admitted she had feelings for him. He’d gotten so mad and she’d laughed it off. She’d teased him for believing that she had a crush on him when she insisted she didn’t.
Jacob had forgiven her when he’d cooled down, and she’d told herself she’d never do something so risky again.
