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“Because Dad said you two were going to work things out. He said we’re forever a family.” There’s a desperate wish to her words, and it pours down the foyer and straight to my heart.
I glare at Tyler. “When did you say that?”
“Fuck.” Tyler looks at me with a shift of his feet and his hand rubbing the back of his neck. His grievance with Will forgotten, he looks up at Izzy. “Sweetie, you misunderstood.”
“You two suck! I hate you guys so much!” Izzy storms back to her room and slams the door.
The three of us flinch from our spots in the foyer at the sound that makes the house shake. Tyler rushes up the stairs to talk to Izzy.
I turn to Will. “You should go.”
Apprehensively, Will looks upstairs and then back to me. “I’m getting used to being the guy who is always told to leave.”
“Will, that’s not what is happening right now.”
He grabs his jacket and opens the front door. He starts down the front steps, and I follow him down without my coat, hugging myself to fight off the cold.
“Will, I just … I’m sorry.”
He pauses when he reaches the bottom and shakes his head. “It’s okay. I need to get away from Tyler before I say something I’m going to regret. Izzy’s freaking out, and I know Allison must have messed you up mentally. You need a minute.”
“A minute? I need a year!” I exclaim. I take a step back and do a slow spin as I hold my face and catch my breath.“When I saw Allison today … she’s not okay. You think she’s fine, but she’s absolutely, utterly destroyed by us. She threw a large coffee at me. That is not the action of a woman who’sfine. She’s putting my whole company on blast, stating,Don’t book these women to plan your wedding, or they’ll steal your groom and your heart.You know what? She’s right, Will. You said you chose me. I both loved hearing those words and dreaded every one. You promised it wasn’t about me, but you confessed that you chose me, and I can’t un-love that!”
His hands fly to his head, and he holds the top and looks up at the sky, as if searching for the answers. “Fine. Yes, I chose you. What does that make me? A man who ends a relationship with a great girl he didn’t love to see if maybe, possibly, this incredible woman—who hates him, by the way—would even talk to him. This is aboutmychoices, not yours. I chose you. I’d do it again even if it meant you were drenched in coffee every day for the rest of your life because I’m selfish. Fuck, I’m crazy about you, Melissa. I have been since you kissed me. Thirty years. I’ve kissed a lot of women, but never someone I can’t stop thinking about. Someone who makes me fucking happy just to see even if it’s for fifteen minutes in her kitchen after a long day. Someone who I would race down a goddamn aisle to be with because I’m that excited to spend the rest of my life with her.”
I grip my gut and hunch over. “This is too much, too fast. I’m just getting my life together. My business is finally taking off. Jillian is depending on me. My daughter is falling apart, my son is becoming too amendable, and no matter how hard I try, I can’t ever move past the fact that I made you leave another woman.”
“You opened my eyes.”
“Who knows your eyes won’t open up even wider with the next girl who comes into your life?”
The severe cut of his jaw hardens. He takes a step forward and points toward the house. “Do you think because that asshole inside betrayed your vows, cheated on you, and left you that I’d do the same thing? This is different, Melissa. What Allison and I had was a mistake that I ended before it went too far. What I’m offering you is more.Somuch more. I’ve never felt this before. With anyone. Not with Allison, not with any girlfriend I had in college or high school. Never.” He runs his hands through his hair and down the back of his head, gripping his neck and then holding his arms out in a plea.
I turn around and walk a few feet away from him, breathing hard and clenching my chest. “I have kids and a business that’s about to crash and burn.”
“Those are excuses. I might be coming off way too strong here, but I’m not wasting time. I don’t want to take your kids’ time or wreck your business. I just want to be with you.” He closes the space between us and stops at my back. I can feel the heat of him near, but he’s not touching me. “Do you trust me?”
My eyes close at the feel of his heart, pulsating against my back, desperate for an answer.
I want to say yes.
I should.
I can’t.
“Melissa, please.” His commanding tone is a plea. “I burn for you.”
He’s right. The fire between us has burned too far, too fast, and everything around us is imploding. Our love is like a spark in the forest. It warms you until it rages on and burns everything in its path.
My silence appears to be answer enough.
“I can’t keep chasing you, Melissa. I’ve laid my heart on the table. This is me. I’ve vowed to never hurt you, and yet you destroy me because you will never trust me, not because of anything I’ve done, but because you will forever compare me to your ex-husband. I love you. I’ll say it again because I’m not ashamed. I love you. Sadly, that’s not enough.”
“Will …” I gasp. My breath is hard to catch.
“Good-bye, Melissa.”
He walks away from me. My tears are hot and heavy down my cheeks. I turn around just in time to see him get in his truck.
