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Cam gave him the smallest of smiles. “When I walked away, I was thinking of me. Of how I couldn’t be in the same town as your mom without breaking down. But I didn’t think of her. If I had, I would never have walked away.”
Michael’s stomach twisted. “I don’t get this.”
“We should have talked about it back then,” Cam told him. “But things got better between us. And then you left for college and then London. It felt too late, but it never was.”
And he’d left for London after his injury because he never felt he was good enough. Michael loosened his tie, wrapping it around his hand. “I thought you were all better off without me.”
“We’re always better when you’re here,” Josh said. “I don’t know if you noticed, but Mom’s over the damn moon you came back. All of us, we feel complete when you’re here.”
Michael looked at Cam. He was nodding.
Fuck, his eyes were stinging. He couldn’t remember the last time they had. When he was a kid? He knew for sure he’d never cried as an adult.
Mostly because he’d learned to block his emotions.
“And Daniel telling you she needed to choose was an asshole move,” Cam said. “But I’m pretty sure he knows that by now. Give it a few more days and he’ll be on his knees begging her to talk to him. And he should because that woman deserves so much more than she’s been given.”
His mouth felt as dry as the desert. “Grace isn’t talking to Daniel either?”
Cam shrugged. “That’s what I’ve heard. But it doesn’t matter about him. What matters is you and Grace. Do you love her?”
Michael nodded. “So much.”
“Then why the hell are you walking away?” Josh asked.
He opened his mouth to answer, but all the words were stuck. He’d thought he was doing the right thing. Sacrificing his own happiness for Grace’s.
But he wasn’t. He was being an idiot. Walking away the same way Cam had.
“Fuck.” He dropped his face into his hands.
Josh chuckled. “Yeah. So now what are you going to do about it?”
He closed his eyes for a moment, but all he could see was her. The way she’d looked the day they’d met, soaked by the rainstorm, her eyes fiery as they argued over a cab.
And then that night, the way she’d felt so soft in his arms, yet she’d always been the strong one. Until he’d told her it was over and he walked away.
He’d broken the one thing that made sense in his life.
People would talk. He knew that. But they would have moved on just as soon as a new topic came along. He should have been man enough to ride out the wave. To protect her from it. To face their families and tell them they could hurt him all they wanted, but he loved her and would never let anybody cause her pain.
Instead,he’dcaused her pain. And then she’d hurt herself yesterday and he wasn’t there to help. That’s what got him most of all. He wanted to be the one she called when she fell off her horse. Or won a contract at work. The one she turned to with a smile when somebody said something stupid.
“Fuck,” he said again, because he had no idea how to make this better.
All he knew was it was time to fight. For her. For him. For the future.
And the person he needed to fight hardest against was himself.
* * *
The diner was full to bursting, every seat, booth, and stool taken up by a member of the Hartson family or their friends. And in the center of it all was Delilah. She’d changed out of the little dress she’d worn to sing in the choir, mostly because she was almost certain to get ketchup on it, and was wearing a pair of shorts and a t-shirt with a unicorn printed across the front.
She was talking excitedly to Cassie, sitting next to her on a stool, and Cassie was nodding with a smile at whatever Delilah was saying.
Grace’s mom was sitting with her aunts, all of whom were fussing around Mia, who looked like she wasn’t enjoying being the center of attention. As though she knew Grace was watching her, Mia turned around and caught her eye.
She gave her a soft smile that reminded Grace so much of Michael that it hurt. The same eyes, the same crinkles beside them.
