AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Even if my soul tries to rear up and tell me differently. I know the truth.
When I finally leave the gym, I try and get to my office, but the first thing I see is Piper coming down the hallway toward me. I look down at my hands, realizing I’m fisting the newspaper with her beautiful face plastered on the front fucking page where she’s kissing another man. I don’t give a fuck that it’s on his cheek. Her lips touched his skin and my anger, the pure fucking rage, builds in me again.
Piper’s eyes are downcast, but when I let out a low warning growl against my fucking will, her head snaps up. Her dark eyes dart between my hand where the newspaper is clutched and the stony visage of my face. My jaw is locked so tight I can almost hear my teeth cracking under the force of it.
Piper’s eyes narrow as she looks at the paper before she teases me, “What did that paper ever do to you?”
I force my fingers to relax a fraction and grit out, “Nothing. The paper didn’t do anything to me.”
It’s not a lie. It isn’t the paper’s fault I can’t get my shit together and offer my woman everything she needs. It’s not the paper’s fault I’m broken, that part of me never came back from serving my country. It’s not her fault either, but it doesn’t stop me from lashing out.
I shake out the paper and show it to her. When her eyes catch on the photo, Piper pales and it’s as good of a confirmation as I’m going to get. My heart shatters. I’m too late. I was always going to be too late.
Piper takes a step toward me, and my body reacts, taking a step back. When her deep brown eyes come up to mine, they’re filled with pleading pain. I hate to see it there, but what the fuck am I supposed to do? If she comes closer, I don’t trust myself.
I would never hurt her, never, but I don’t know what I would do if she got closer to me. If she touches me, confessions might fall from my lips, words spoken but to what end? What would be the point?
“Landon,” she whispers into the void between us.
Has there ever been this chasm between us before? Was it always this wide? This inhospitable? This impossible? Was I just deluding myself into thinking one day things might be different? The spark of hope that she would wait for me is snuffed out.
She swallows hard and shakes her head. “It’s not what it looks like.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I mutter the words, but by the way she rears back, I know she heard them. I force my face into a neutral expression, tucking away the hope and the pain and the potential someplace deep inside me. It’s not the first time, I’ve been doing it for years. So, why does it hurt so much more this time? “You’re an adult, Piper. You don’t owe me an explanation.”
She opens her pretty lips, but I can’t. I can’t listen to her words right now. Why should I? Would they hurt more? Would they heal?
I’m too much of a coward to find out.
Instead of giving her a chance to explain, I shove the newspaper at her and then stomp into my office, slamming the door behind me as if the distance will help, as if it will make any difference.
I know it won’t. It never has before.
