Page 37 of Spark

“I told her how I feel, didn’t I? Followed your fucking advice.”

“It didn’t go well?” Joe asked.

Dex growled.

“Okay, okay, as long as you didn’t tell her you love her, it’s totally fixable,” Joe said, looking hopeful.

When Dex said nothing, he groaned.

“Shit. You can’t go telling a woman you love her after two weeks. No wonder she’s running scared.”

“Not fucking helpful, Joe,” Hugh said.

Who was he kidding? Joe was right. There was no fixing things between him and Hattie. There was no going back in time, no swallowing down those three words that had destroyed everything.

Dex sucked in several steadying breaths. He needed to calm the fuck down. When he thought he could talk again without losing his shit, he looked at Hugh. “I appreciate what you tried to do for me here, bringing me into the family, the apartment, the job. But I don’t want more family, and I don’t want…this. I quit.”

He strode out the door and up to his apartment to pack.

* * *

Hattie forced a smile when Shay walked into their office carrying a tray with their coffees and two large pieces of cake.

Today was the first day since she’d moved there that she hadn’t wanted to come into work. Somehow she’d eventually managed it, when all she’d wanted to do was stay in bed with the covers over her head and cry.

But the sheets smelled like Dex, and that made her want Dex even more. Made her want to call him and cuddle him, kiss him. Be with him.

Why did he have to complicate everything? Telling her he loved her had made it impossible for her to see him again. If she failed here, if her parents won…

She couldn’t afford to let her emotions get in the way.

He can’t love you. How can you love someone after such a short amount of time?

Her phone beeped again, and her belly tightened, heart racing. Tears sprang to her eyes, and she bit back a sob as a rush of emotion came from nowhere—emotions she’d been trying to keep locked down since last night when he’d told her he loved her, when he refused to take it back.

God, the look on his face when she told him to leave.

“Hattie?”

She glanced up at Shay, trying and failing to smile.

There was sympathy in her friend’s eyes. “Are you okay?”

“I’m…yeah, I’m fine.”

Shay didn’t miss the hitch to her breath, and after putting their drinks and cake down, she rolled her chair over to Hattie’s desk.

“There’s nothing wrong. I promise,” Hattie said unconvincingly.

“I don’t want to pry or stick my nose somewhere it doesn’t belong, but…I thought you should know—” She took Hattie’s hand. “Dex quit this morning. He told Hugh he’s leaving and he’s not coming back.”

Hattie stared at Shay for several long seconds, trying to process what she was hearing and feeling. Then the dam broke. A sound she’d never made in her life burst from her, followed by a sob, and the tears threatening to escape did. “Oh God. He…he’s leaving?”

Shay grabbed her and pulled her into a bone-crushing hug. “What’s going on, Hattie?”

Her friend sounded alarmed.

“H-he told me he loved me last night,” Hattie managed to get out.