“Go.” Her sister’s tone was calm, but hard. A stranger’s voice. “Leave this place, that guy standing there. But remember you aren’t doing it for me. Or for Dad. You’re doing it because you’re afraid that you aren’t enough, that the moment you stay, that you admit that you’re the one who is human with needs, just like the rest of us, he’ll go. And you know what? Maybe he will. Because this is life, not a Disney movie. But you know what? Maybe he won’t. Maybe you and he will live on Love Street forever. Take walks down to the Kissing Bridge. Live out the most disgustingly happily-ever-after that’s ever been. Here’s the thing. You don’t know which way it’s going to go. But don’t use me as an excuse, because I amsickof it.”
Tuesday turned her back and walked down the hall. The slam from the spare room door rattled the framed quote—I LOVE THE SMELL OF AMBITION IN THE MORNING—hanging on the wall.
***
“I’m sorry you saw that,” Pepper said after a long moment. “No one fights worse than sisters. It’s gloves off.”
“Hey, I’ve got one too,” he said slowly. “They can strike right to where it hurts most.” Even still, everything those two just shared rocked him to his core.
“I wasn’t being hyperbolic. I need to book a flight and go. Tonight. Tuesday is wrong to underplay the situation. My dad has no one else, and he can’t be left alone, hurting. Anyway, we knew this was coming, right? It’s a fling, not a forever. And in some ways the timing works out great. I get to move on. You get to move on, Mr. Scallywag, you.” She knocked his biceps with a playful punch.
“Stop.” He caught her hand, traced a thumb over her clenched knuckles. “Drop the act and be real a second. This is it, Pepper. Tuesday was right. You do need other people. For a long time I tried living the opposite way. It’s not all it’s cracked up to be. There was a reason Tom Hanks started talking to that damn volleyball inCast Away. We’re human, but we’re animals, too, social ones. We thrive in relationships. In being together. In needing and relying on one another.”
That stupid smile stayed stamped on her mouth, even as a single tear escaped down her cheek. She yanked her hand away and swiped it away. “We can’t give each other what we want. I can’t stay. Let’s agree this was an almost-to-be, not a meant-to-be. ”
“You are right, and wrong. So fucking wrong.” He smoothed a stray hair back from her hot temple. “I get that you have to go. You want to check in on family, and nothing is more important. But come back.”
She gave a disbelieving laugh, pulling her hand free and swiping her eyes. “That makes the least sense of anything. You’re a vet. I still get nervous around dogs. You’re small town, and I’m big city. My happy ending will never happen if I sell myself short. Not only did you not admit our relationship, you will never leave Georgia.” Her voice sharpened, each word striking some inner stone lodged in her heart, honing the edge. “This is your home,” she spoke faster, slashing indiscriminately now. “Your practice is here. You are part of this place. You live on Love Street, and your last name is Valentine. You’re a pirate in the sack and sail a boat. This place is in your blood, and you help make this town the way it is.”
“You’re here too. Way I hear it, you’re the Scrabble queen of Everland Dog Park and have the folks there eating out of your hand. You took a guy who thought he didn’t need a woman messing up his world to being grateful she did, because he loved being with her more than having a simple life. Let’s face it. Simple sucks.”
Her hands shook as her lips stitched together. He couldn’t tear his gaze from the slight vibration. “Rhett—”
“Stay.” The raw word tore from him. “Stay here and get complicated. Let me be what you need.” Heat flared in his gut. “You’re sarcastic, but I like it. You dress blacker than a raincloud half the time, but always manage to brighten my damn day. You make me crazy, because when I’m with you the impossible feels sane. You need to wake up every day knowing you’re amazing. And fall asleep each night knowing that you’re adored. Give me half a chance and I can make you happy, because one more thing. I think I’m in love with you, Pepper Knight. And you need to know that, too.”
He’d done it. His heart wasn’t on his sleeve. It was cut out and offered, throbbing and raw. No cute little geometric preschool shape, but the real thing, in all its pain and all its potential.
She slowly blinked her nut brown eyes, a thousand amber colors trapped there and yet revealing nothing of her mind. Her mouth opened. She was going to say yes. His heart pounded, his vision dimming on the edges as his world narrowed down here to this moment, this woman who’d blown up the walls he’d kept around his heart. Let him believe that it was worth risking everything one last time, because when it’s right, it’s so fucking right.
She licked her lips. The word was right there. She bit her top lip, heaved a sigh, as soft and final as a falling leaf through autumn air. “No.”
Pain laced the heavy silence. The walls around his heart were smoking rubble. His heart defenseless from the assault. “Pepper—”
“No. No way. Can’t you see? I—I can’t.” She broke away and swept her hand in the space between them. “I’m not a mess for you to fix. I graduated from NYU Law, for God’s sake. I need to get it together and land a real job. Be professional. Stop playing pretend.”
“And that’s what you want? To be a lawyer?” He knew the answer, but needed to hear her say it.
“Why doesn’t anyone understand? It’s not about what I want!” she screamed. “My sister doesn’t get it. My dad doesn’t get it. And you…you don’t get it. You stand there saying all the right things, but what happens after the happy ending? Books, movies, they all stop right at the best part, and there’s a reason for that. Because after that moment it all grows ugly. I’m doing both of us a favor and getting out before we get to that point. Everland was a dead end. A cul-de-sac. It’s time for me to make a U-turn and get back on track.”
He sniffed, his mouth tugging into a bitter smile. He’d given her his fucking heart for safekeeping, and she chewed and spit it out. The space between them had felt so close a moment ago; now it was a gulf. A void. They stood as if on two icebergs slowly drifting away on an implacable tide. “And me? I’m a dead end, too?”
Masochist. He had to hear her say it. Otherwise he’d dive in, try to rescue them in one final reckless attempt.
“Don’t do this.” She grabbed her hair in two fistfuls. “Don’t make it worse than it has to be.”
He should be more careful what he wished for. Her non-answer was reply enough. The pleading was plain in her eyes. For him to stop. To relent. To pretend this wasn’t wrenching. “It’s already worse, Pepper,” he snarled, a chill lapping up his back, icing over his insides. “So go on, then go. Have yourself a great fucking life. Enjoy getting everything you never wanted.”
And because he needed to watch another woman he loved walk away like he needed his nuts staple-gunned to the wall, he left first.
