“I’m hardly abandoning anybody.”
“You know, Dev and Callum told me they were thinking of starting their own business.”
Sanders faltered for a minute, then shrugged. “So let them. Denver is over. Green Valley is where it’s at.”
Skip’s face drained of color. “I spent the last ten years of my life building that business with you.”
“So come here. Start over and move here with me.”
Skip’s nostrils flared. He glared at Sanders like he couldn’t believe the words coming out of his mouth. “I have a life in Denver. I can’t just drop everything to live here. I can’t just run away from my problems.”
Sanders flinched, the smile completely gone from his face. “Whoa, mate.”
“Okay,” I cut in. This was too much. I didn’t need to be there while they worked through this. I would talk to Sanders later. “I think maybe you two need to talk.”
Sanders threw out his arms. “I don’t understand you. Either of you. This is great news. We’re getting everything we wanted.”
I started to back away.
“No,” Skip said loudly enough that a few people looked over. Vincent looked up at us, his dark eyebrow rose behind his thick black frames. “You’re getting whatyouwant in this moment and you’re forgetting about everything else. You’re distracting yourself from real life.” His hand gestured to me.
Heat burned my cheeks. “I have to go,” I said.
“Roxy, wait,” Sanders called but I couldn’t hear any more. I wouldn’t be the reason Sanders avoided his responsibilities. I wouldn’t be a momentary distraction.
I walked away. I couldn’t look at him anymore. I was too close to breaking. To falling into his arms and letting him use me as an excuse to avoid real life. When I looked up, Vincent’s gaze followed me with a pinched expression that may have been disappointment but I didn’t have the emotional energy to care.
* * *
Sanders
I raced after Roxy.
“Hang on, just stay here,” I snapped to Skip. “I can’t let her go.”
Skip ground his teeth and shook his head.
I caught up with Roxy a few feet away. “You can’t just run away from me again,” I said to her.
She flinched. “Don’t you say that to me, when that’s exactly what you’re doing.”
My body went rigid.
She gentled her voice. “You need to deal with your dad’s death, Sanders. You need to go home and take care of your office, your business, and all the other stuff. I’m not the one running.”
“What about us?”
Her face was deliberately cool. “You need time. I need time too. Maybe the timing isn’t right.”
“We make it right, then. I think we have the potential to be something great.”
“Sanders. We are something great … were … I dunno. But I do know that you can’t be in two places at once.”
“And us?” I asked as fear and anger warred in me.
“We were a summer fling.”
Her words sliced me in half. Roxy was lying. She was lying, as sure as I knew when we played two truths and a lie that day. She was pushing me away. She was running. Not me. I saw the moment she left me in her mind. The moment a façade of ice formed over her heart again. One not even my sunshine could thaw.
