“But not enough to stay.”
The truth of it sat between them.“I got a job offer.Senior VP of Strategy.It’s everything I’ve worked toward.”
“Congratulations.”The word was flat.
“I haven’t accepted it.”
“But you’re going to.”
“I don’t know.”
Bryan’s laugh was sharp and humorless.“You don’t know.That’s great, Cassidy.Real comforting.”
She moved closer.“David—my boss—called.One of my colleagues destroyed an account I built from the ground up.They’re offering me the corner office, the title, everything I burned myself out trying to earn.They gave me forty-eight hours to give them an answer.”
“So you’re weighing your options.Seeing if this little coastal town can compete with the big city career.”His eyes were hard.“Let me save you some time.It can’t.”
“That’s not what I’m doing.”
“He pushed away from the counter.“No?Then what are you doing?Because from where I’m standing, it looks like you’re trying to figure out if I’m worth giving up your dreams for.And we both know how that calculation ends.”
“You don’t know anything about my dreams.”
“I know you didn’t come to Starlight Shores looking for a life.You came looking for a break.Two months to recharge before you went back to what matters.”He gestured around the small cottage.“This was never supposed to be permanent.I get it.I do.But don’t stand here and pretend you haven’t been planning your exit strategy since day one.”
Her hands clenched into fists.“Is that really what you think of me?”
“I think you’re terrified of ending up like your mother.Small life, small town, nothing to show for it but regrets.”His voice gentled slightly.“And I think you’ve spent so long running from that fear that you can’t recognize when you’ve found something worth staying for.”
The words were too close to the truth.“You don’t get to psychoanalyze me.”
“Then tell me I’m wrong.”He closed the distance between them.“Tell me you haven’t been treating the last month like a project with a deadline.Tell me every time we connected, every conversation we had, you weren’t already thinking about how it would end.”
She wanted to deny it.Wanted to say he was completely off base.But standing in his small kitchen with his hurt written plainly across his face, she couldn’t lie.
“I don’t know how to do this,” she whispered.
“Do what?”
“Let myself want something that doesn’t fit into my… plans.”Her voice cracked.“I came here broken.The festival was supposed to prove I could still function and still be the person I built my entire identity around being.”
“And?”
“Instead, I started caring about things that have nothing to do with deliverables and deadlines.”She looked at him.“I started caring about you.”
His expression shifted.For a moment, she thought he might reach for her.Then he stepped back and shook his head.
“But not enough.”
“That’s not fair.”
“Fair?”His voice rose.“You want to talk about fair?I opened up to you.Told you things I haven’t told anyone.Let myself believe that maybe, just maybe, you were different.That you saw something in this town, in this life, worth building toward.”He ran his hand through his hair.“But no.You look at Starlight Shores like it’s a layover between real destinations.”
“That’s not true.”Her anger flared.“I have a career I’ve sacrificed everything for.My boss is offering me everything I’ve ever wanted.”
“Is he?”He moved toward the door.“Do you want the corner office, or do you want a life, Cassidy?You can’t have both.”
“Why not?”
