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“Fuck off.”
I stomped away, feeling like shit. He was right. Kat didn’t deserve a broken man. My heart wasn’t whole. It hadn’t been for years. I couldn’t give her what she deserved. Kat would get hurt, and our family and friends would get hurt. We were no longer pretending. The feeling that had settled inside my chest when I looked into her eyes was something I never thought I’d feel again. That was why I needed to end this before it destroyed us both.
WE DIDN’T TALK ABOUT the mock wedding or the extremely hot kiss we’d shared in front of my family in the tasting room. In fact, we hardly talked at all. We drove home in silence, and then Kat went right to the guest room, mumbling something about seeing me tomorrow, and closed the door.
After five minutes, she came back out, and I bit back a laugh. Her bed wasn’t set up yet, and she had no choice but to join me in my bed or take the couch. Since I’d left her high and dry thanks to my panic attack, I let her take the bed.
My traitor of a dog slept with Kat. Loneliness settled over me, and it pissed me off. I got little sleep and was in another shit mood in the morning. I ended up going for a run by myself through the park, which only pissed me off further because I always ran with Shiloh. She wasmydog.
We had hours before we had to be at the dinner with her parents, so I went to work in Mr. Thompson’s barn to blow off some steam. When I got home, Kat had set up her bed in the guest room and moved all of her things out of mine. We didn’t talk about it. In fact, we didn’t talk about anything, and it was driving me mad.
I normally loved the quiet, but Kat wasn’t her usual cheerful self, and it needled at me because I didn’t know how to make it better. My past had ruined me, and I was shit at relationships now. Which was why I never made it past the first or second date with someone. That, and I didn’t allow myself to open up and give anything back. The dates were mostly to pass the time and ease the loneliness. In truth, they usually ended up making it worse.
With Kat, I felt like someone had tossed me into the middle of the ocean without a life raft. Emotions I’d buried a lifetime ago were floating to the surface, and when I tried to grab them to stay afloat, they pulled me under. I didn’t want to face them. I didn’t want to face the past. But the more time I spent with Kat, the more the memories haunted me.
“I’m sorry in advance for my family,” Kat said, breaking the silence. We still had thirty minutes to go since her family lived in Charlotte, which was a little over an hour away from Oak Springs.
“It’s okay,” I said.
She nodded and looked out the window. A suffocating silence filled the car.
“I’m sorry about yesterday. About my mom forcing us to stand up there and then for leaving you to deal with her. Did you set a wedding date?” My stomach rolled. I hoped to hell she hadn’t.
“No. I wrote a few down and said I’d talk to you. She was really pushing for a month from now, and I sort of panicked. She said she was sorry and promised to back off.”
“Shit. Kat, I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have had to deal with that.”
She shrugged and then a glint of humor lit her eyes. “It’s okay. You were dealing with your own panic attack.”
“You saw that?” I asked.
“Yep.”
I groaned, and she laughed. The tension broke, and I breathed a sigh of relief. We pulled up in front of Kat’s parents’ house shortly after, and my mouth dropped open. I thought my parents’ house was oversized and ridiculous, but it was nothing compared to this. A woman dressed in a crisp black button-down, black dress pants, and black shoes walked out and waited for us to get out. Her hair was slicked back into a tight bun, not a stray hair dared to escape. As I got out of the car, the lines of disapproval around her mouth tightened, and I swallowed hard.
“Hello, Louise,” Kat said with an eye roll.
The woman nodded to acknowledge the greeting but remained poised with her hands behind her back and her chin up, nose in the air. “Welcome. I’ll show you inside,” she said. Her attention was on me.
“Thank you,” I replied
This wasn’t a house; it was an estate. It was enormous, with huge white pillars twice the size of the ones at my parents’ house flanking the front door. Louise led us inside, and I froze. Three of my parents’ houses could fit inside. My parents appeared to be trying too hard, but the Coopers’ house dripped with money. It looked like a museum, and I was afraid to touch anything.
We followed the woman to the dining room, which looked like it had been made for a king. A chair that looked like an actual throne sat at the head of the table. Floor-to-ceiling windows behind the chair overlooked the immaculate backyard.
“Are those peach trees?” I asked.
“Oh, yes. Mr. Cooper prides himself on his peaches.”
Kat rolled her eyes, but my mouth watered. Peaches were my favorite fruit. Would I be able to sneak some out of here without getting caught?
“Have a seat,” the woman said. “The Coopers will be along shortly.”
Kat sighed and took a seat. “This is ridiculous. I’m so sorry.”
“For what?” I asked, taking my seat beside her.
There was a plate of cheese and crackers on the table and two glasses of water.
