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By the way my mother placed a hand on the small of my back, I knew I was detouring, fast.
But it was too late.
I had a chance to be heard by Cruz, and I wasn’t going to mess it up this time. I didn’t even care that I was stealing Trinity’s thunder.
This was truly the only time I’d ever done that maliciously—deliberately—and she needed to deal with it.
For the first time in my life, I was selfish.
“I’m not going to sugarcoat it. A lot has changed since Trinity got engaged to Wyatt. For one thing, our families went on a cruise together. And that’s when I…”
Don’t say had wild sex with Dr. Cruz Costello. I repeat don’t say had wild sex with Dr. Cruz Costello.
“That’s when I fell in love with Dr. Cruz Costello,” I finished.
People gasped and choked on their drinks in the audience. I soldiered through, the hysteria bubbling in my throat reminding me that I’d just admitted to a room full of people who despised me, that I was in love with their idol.
“I fell in love with him, and I think maybe, for a moment in time, he fell in love with me, too.”
I turned to look at him fully now.
He stared at me with fascination. There was no tenderness or love there. Just the surprise and awe of someone who was witnessing the carnage of a train wreck happening in slow motion.
It was too late to back down from this, though, so I let it all out, even if Catherine Costello looked like she was about to stab me with her steak knife.
“I can’t live without you, Dr. Costello. I mean, I can, but I don’t want to. Not in the spoiled way people don’t want to do things, like laundry and the dishes. I know this is the wrong time and certainly the wrong place. But Cruz, I’m going to take my chance and tell you—the ultimatum you gave me the other day? I accept! I accept your offer!”
I thought it was a nice touch. To finally give him what he wanted, move in with him, after being all wishy-washy. I’d seen scenes like that in movies and TV shows all the time.
This was my grand gesture, and as such, he couldn’t deny me.
Cruz’s expression was unreadable, his mouth pressed into a hard line. Not exactly the way a Disney prince looked before whisking his favorite princess away on a magical carpet, but hey, I had to work with what I got.
“Sorry, sweetheart, that offer has expired.”
What.
There were more gasps.
People pulled out their phones and directed them at my face. Catherine clutched her heart, like she was about to have a breakdown. Her husband side-eyed her quietly, undoubtedly not buying into her theatrics.
Trinity surprised me by shooting Cruz a murderous stare and reaching across the table to give my hand a squeeze. I felt the air leave my lungs. The earth shaking under my feet.
He’d said no.
He didn’t want me anymore.
I closed my eyes, letting the humiliation sink in.
Then he continued.
“I’m not an interlude to your ordinary program, Tennessee Turner. Nor am I a life choice like veganism you can slip in and out of, depending on your family’s mood. I love our families, but not enough to let them tamper with the big love of my life. But you don’t seem to feel the same. I don’t want you to move in just so you can move out the first time I piss you off. When things go wrong. When your sister decides to have a fit. When my mother thinks you’re unsuitable for me and things get hard. In short—I don’t want to let you in, when it’s so perfectly obvious you are going to bail on me as soon as things get hard again.”
“I won’t,” I cried out. “I promise.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Then what do you suggest?” I blurted out, my infamous, never-yielding pride in tatters. People were gulping in every second of this. This was too good to be true. The town’s screw-up being rejected by the national darling. “I can’t just give you up. I love you.”
