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“Is that why you helped me?”
He took a step towards her, his face softening. “No. Iwantedto help you, I believed inyou.Not the other way around.”
She knew he was telling the truth. His phone rang again, and he growled a curse and silenced it.
“Someone clearly wants to get hold of you. It might be important.”
“It’s not.”
She scowled. “So that’s it then? You’re just gonna go home to L.A. and hide how miserable you are and make everyone else happy instead of yourself because you don’t have the courage to go after what you want?”
He just looked at her with puppy dog eyes full of despair that broke her heart. She’d had to make the choice once, different context of course. Her or Marcus, and she’d chosen her. She knew it was hard. She was disappointed in Will for not seeing what he was doing to himself and angry at him for everything he did to help her and others, yet he wouldn’t help himself.
“You’re not the man I thought you were,” she said and spun on her heel, leaving the shelter and stomping back to the trailer.
Chapter 23
You’re not the man I thought you were…her words battered around his brain, pinballing from one side of his skull to the other. They haunted him all night, kept him awake, hovered over him while he packed up the little cabin for a second time.
He had hardly slept, the whole situation too frustrating. He’d disappointed Rebelle, and now the seconds were ticking away until he left for good. He hadn’t wanted to spend his last night, New Year’s Eve, alone. He wanted to spend it with her. He’d heard an old saying once that the way you spent New Year’s Eve was the way you would spend the rest of the year, and he had wanted it to be with her. Wanted to ignore the world, his life just a little longer but it just wasn’t possible. Duty called.
There was a knock on the cabin door and that cruel mistress, hope, sprang to life. In two strides he was across the room and swinging the door open wide.
“Happy New Year!” Beau called.
“Screw You For Leaving!” Taylor said at the same time and gave him a big hug. He smiled and hugged her back.
“I can’t believe only three months ago we were saying goodbye and now we’re doing it all over again. I’ll ask you one more time, stay?” Beau practically begged him with his dark eyes.
Will pulled him into a bone crushing hug. “If I could, I would. In a heartbeat.”
Taylor put her arms around them both grumbling, “I don’t see why you can’t.”
Will chuckled, swallowing the lump in his throat. He didn’t deserve them. He pulled back, blinking to clear his watery eyes.“Invite me back for the wedding?” he asked, handing her back the keys to the cabin.
Taylor playfully punched his shoulder, wiping her eyes. “You know it.”
“But I haven’t even proposed yet!” Beau said, indignantly.
Taylor smirked. “Oh sweetheart, we both know you will. You need to lock this down.” She gestured to herself, and Beau just shook his head. Will loved their back and forth, and once again he was profoundly grateful that his friend had met his match. Will nearly reached out, wanting to pull Rebelle into his embrace forgetting she wasn’t there. He felt her beside him even when she wasn’t.
Like he knew exactly what Will was thinking, Beau said, “You gonna go see her on your way out of town?”
Will scrubbed a hand over his stubbly jaw. “I think she’s too mad at me right now.”
“If you leave without saying goodbye, you’ll make her madder. And that will make me, Christy and Justine mad and trust me, you don’t want that,” Taylor warned, arching a brow.
“I don’t think it’ll go well,” Will hedged.
“Better than not at all.”
“Yeah, yeah. I hear you. Haven’t you got a bar to run? And a gym?” Will grumbled.
“Not on New Year’s Day, but we’ll let you go. If you come back again, make sure it’s for good. You hear?”
Will made a noncommittal noise and hugged them again.
With one last look around and a heavy heart, Will grabbed his bag and left. He dropped it in the trunk of his car which was much emptier now that his telescope wasn’t taking up space. He figured he would leave it at Rebelle’s seeing how much she now enjoyed looking at stars.
