Page 117 of Falling for the Billionaire Best Man

“Stop,” I groaned. “You’re not making this any easier. I’ve made my decision. It’s the right thing to do. Besides, I burned that bridge.”

“You still have a chance with Dorie, you know,” he said.

I shook my head. “I don’t have a chance. I hurt her, and she doesn’t deserve that. She doesn’t deserve it now, or twenty years from now when I inevitably break her heart. I’m ending this before either of us get in too deep. I’m stopping the disaster. I’m learning from my father’s mistakes.”

“You’re not like him. Not at all.”

I froze, my jaw clenching. “My dad? I’m his son through and through⁠—”

“You were your mom’s son, man,” Cullen interrupted. “You were like her, and she’d be livid if she was here and knew you were giving up on something so important to you.”

I turned away from Cullen, my throat suddenly constricting. The mention of my mother always hit me like a punch to the gut. She’d been gone for years, but her absence still felt fresh, like a wound that refused to scab over.

“Don’t bring her into this,” I said.

“Why not?” Cullen shot back. “She was the one who taught you how to love—really love. You think she’d want you sitting here, wallowing in self-pity and pushing people away because you’re scared? No way, man. She’d tell you to stop being a coward and fight for what you want.”

My mother had been the kind of person who believed in second chances, in forgiveness, in the power of love and all that shit. I remembered her always reading romance novels and crying at rom-coms. I didn’t know how she could still believe in all that when my father, her husband, was destroying her. He was the farthest thing from a romantic. He never gave her that happy ending I knew she longed for.

I opened my mouth to argue, but before I could say anything, someone cleared their throat behind us. I turned, my heart skipping a beat when I saw Dorie standing there, her dress billowing in the breeze. She looked nervous, her hands clasped in front of her, her eyes searching mine.

“Uh, do you have a minute?” Dorie asked.

Cullen grinned and squeezed my arm before standing up. “I’ll leave you two to talk. Make good choices.”

He walked away, leaving me alone with Dorie. My heart was pounding in my chest as I stood, brushing the sand off my pants. For a moment, I considered telling her no, that we couldn’t talk, that it was better if we just let this go. But the look in her eyes stopped me.

I hesitated, then nodded. “Yeah. Of course.”