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She made a face. “Soon it isn’t only going to be the squirrels pegging you with acorns. And that piece of cake is mine.”
“Not a chance. Isn’t that right, Copper?”
She looked back at me like I was an idiot. Maybe I needed another woman to put me in my place.
“Even she knows you’re full of it.” Beau bumped me.
I bumped her back.
We were acting like we were fifteen instead of going on forty. And it was so nice, I wanted to walk in this park until we dropped.
“My legal counsel has advised against me doing what I planned for us tomorrow,” she said.
But what she didn’t say was she didn’t care. I heard it in every syllable.
“Still in.”
“Why do you do that?”
“What?” I lifted a shoulder and lowered it.
“Say yes to anything without asking what it is first,” she said in disbelief.
“Figure you wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.”Haven’t you realized I can’t say no to you?
She stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. Brutus looked torn between staying with her and following Copper and me.
“Why did you push me away?” she asked quietly.
I looked away. She didn’t have to say when. The pain in those eyes had haunted me every night until she’d come back into my life.
“You’re like standing next to the sun.”
She looked at me with . . . awe at my comment. She was bright and beautiful and fire. How could she not see that?
But then a cloud came over her expression.
“It was my fault.” She hung her head, and I couldn’t take it.
I stepped into her space and cradled her jaw. “No, it was mine. I wasn’t good enough for you, and I damn sure wasn’t going to hold you back.”
Her expression went from shocked to anger. “How would you hold me back?”
“You had everything ahead of you. I was as far as I’m ever going to go. You deserved to fly.”
I hated it had to be that way, but I’d never regret it.
Her eyes flashed. “I needed you.” She erased the small distance between us. “Do you think I’d choose business over you?”
“What about the friends you made over there? The life you built?” I challenged.
“I love them. And I love the life I have. But I loved you more than all of it combined.”
Stab.
She slashed me open and drained me out. I’d been lucky enough to have a lot of people care about me. But they were family. Obligated in a way.
Those weren’t just words. It was on her face, in her posture, coming off her in waves.
