It’ll be easier to let her go if she thinks I don’t feel anything.
“Luke,” she says, her voice wavering. “Don’t do this.”
“It’s already done.” I swallow hard. “You’ll find the details of the severance as well as a letter of recommendation in your inbox.” I turn to leave. “I think it’s best if you leave today. Now.”
I hear the slightest hitch in her breath as if she’s trying not to cry, but I don’t turn around. Instead, I walk away, leaving her standing alone, like the son of a bitch I am.
Chapter Fifteen
Lilly
“Lilly?”
The shock on Tessa’s face when she opens the door to me just over an hour later tells me she had no clue this was coming either.
“What are you?—”
“He fired me,” I say, the words flat. “I don't have anywhere to go.”
“What?” She shakes her head, but thankfully doesn’t press. Instead, she steps aside, immediately pulling the door wider. “Come in. God, you’re freezing. It’s miserable out there.”
The biting winter wind claws at my back as I step inside, but I hardly feel the cold until the warmth hits me. There’s an earlywinter storm building outside. Driving the short distance down the mountain to Tessa and Holt’s cabin was almost all I could manage with the whipping snow.
But in Tessa’s cabin, everything is warm, quiet, and safe.
My fingers are numb, my cheeks stinging, but it’s not until the door closes behind me that the rest of it starts to sink in.
He fired me.
I don’t have anywhere to go. I don’t have a job.
I don’t havehim.
That’s the part that hurts the most.
It feels impossible that only a few hours ago I’d woken up thinking that things were…thatwewere something.
Now, all I can think of is the look on Luke’s face when he told me that we’drun our course.The cold, indifferent way he’d sent me away as if I was nothing. As if what we’d shared together wasnothing.
I choke on a sob, and immediately my hand flies to my mouth, but it’s too late.
Tessa sees it.
I can tell by the way her expression shifts. Both softening and sharpening with understanding all at once.
I don’t have to say anything.
She knows this isn’t about losing my job.
Not even close.
Lilly
Tessa insisted I have a warm bath and get into a change of clothes. I didn’t have the strength to argue while she ran the hot water, poured in bubbles as if I were a child, and brought me a mug of peppermint tea before leaving me alone.
I sink into the steamy bubbles and try to let myself disappear into the quiet, leaving everything else outside.
I try to pretend that the last few weeks didn't happen.
