AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Angela.
How proving myself to one meant being a failure to the other. And that, to this day, I still wondered if I’d chosen right in whose dream I’d carried for all those years.
Charlotte would scoop up every single bit that I gave her. She’d treat them with care.
And if I started telling her what Chris meant to me at such a pivotal point in my life, she’d handle those confidences gently too. She’d listen and listen and listen—to every single word about a man who’d shown me that I could play a game I was good at and still have fun. That it wasn’t all discipline and control and perfect training regimens.
He was the first person to bring me any sort of joy in the thing that I’d dedicated my life to.
She’d take everything I could give her. And in the deepest parts of my mind, I worried about what would happen.
I ignored that, though, deciding instead to grip tightly to the feeling of what was building between us. To ruthlessly prod where I maybe should back off.
I took a step closer.
The push of another button. Her chin rose an inch, and I loved that she did that.
“That’s the point, Charlotte.” I held my hands out. “I don’twantto do any of this. I wish my friend were here so I could ask him what he wants. Let him deal with all this bullshit.”
Charlotte’s eyes flashed, and I knew immediately that she was ready to step right into the arena with me. There was no backing down or retreating to our corners.
Not this time.
“But he’s not,” she said.
Push.
“But he’s not,” I repeated. My fist thumped at my chest. “I am. And days like today, I fucking hate it.”
“You can hate it all you want,” she said. “No one is trying to talk you out of that. But be honest about why it’s making you feel this way.”
The tables turned before I’d even had a chance to realize it. Charlotte upended the balance, deftly switching the dynamic in the room through her instinctive understanding of what was brewing behind my chest.
What had started out as a desire to push her buttons had suddenly become something so much worse.
“Iambeing honest,” I said between gritted teeth.
Her gaze was unflinching. It ripped through all the things I didn’t want to say. “Then tell me. I want to hear it.”
“No, you don’t.”
She didn’t back down, and I wished she would.
I was glad she didn’t.
Wasn’t that always my problem? I didn’t know what I wanted when it came to Charlotte. To this place. Or maybe I did, and I was too chickenshit to say any of it out loud.
“I thought maybe ...” Her voice trailed off, her eyes searching mine.
“Maybe what?” My voice was ragged, dangerous.
The air between us was charged and heavy—only the slightest nudge and it would explode.
Volatile.
“I thought you were ready to admit that what they want—”
“Don’t,” I growled.
