“I don’t want you to repay me.” I can’t imagine what it’s been like for her, doing it all on her own. She’s worked so damn hard.
“I want that. Don’t you get that?” Her body straightens as she speaks, and she finally loses some of the careful restraint.We’re far enough away from the guys that they can’t hear her, but no doubt they’ve picked up on something being wrong. “It’s important tome. You can’t buy your way into my life.”
Her words feel like a gut punch. I start to tell her that isn’t what I’m doing, but is it? Is some sick, twisted part of me hoping that if I just make her life with me easy enough, she won’t go anywhere?
I don’t want it to be true, but I can’t deny I like my life a lot better with her in it.
“My grandfather left me some money. Actually, a lot of money. Ten million dollars.”
Her brows lift.
I nod, hoping now she sees why I couldn’t just sit back and do nothing while she struggled. I have more money than I’ll ever be able to spend. It’s obscene.
“My mom wasn’t very close with her parents either and my grandfather died when I was five, so I didn’t really get to know him. But I think he must have been worried I’d end up a spoiled rich brat because he put some stipulations on the inheritance. I couldn’t access it until I turned twenty-seven, had to be gainfully employed, and…I had to be married.”
I see the information register slowly until a new emotion plays out over her face—shock. Followed by rage.
“Did you tell me this that night? Is that why you wanted to marry me in Vegas?”
“No. Fuck no. I never expected to touch that money and quite frankly, I didn’t want it.” It’s a shitty consolation prize for not having the kind of family I wanted.
“I can’t believe this,” she mutters, not quite meeting my gaze.
“I am in love with you, Hannah. I have been pretty much from the second I saw you. Fuck the rest of it.”
“No. You don’t get to tell me you love me and say fuck the rest of it. It’s important. You should have told me. And you shouldhave listened to me when I told you I didn’t want your money. This isn’t like picking up the tab at dinner. It’s my fucking career. It’s my whole life!”
“I can’t stand by and watch you struggle. Don’t ask me to do that, Hannah. It’s bullshit.”
“It isn’t bullshit. It’s me wanting to stand on my own, making my own success, and taking care of myself. That’s who I am. It’s who I’ve always been.”
My stomach is in knots. I don’t know what to say or how to fix it. I’m desperate for her to look at me the way she did this morning before she left, like she loved me a fraction as much as I love her.
“I don’t understand.” My desperation is making me agitated, and my voice rises. “I love you and I have the means to help you, and you’re fighting me on it. Why? Why is letting me take care of you such a terrible thing?”
“Just because you don’t understand them, it doesn’t make my feelings wrong.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I run a hand through my hair. Fuck!
“I have to go. Kinsley is waiting for me in the car.”
“No. Stay. I’m not explaining any of this right.” I search for the right words, but she’s already stepping away. She turns before she gets to the door. Some of the fire in her expression is gone, but I feel her putting more than physical distance between us. I fucked it all up. And when she walks out the door, my heart is going right along with her.
Three hours later, it’s just me and Shep left at MVP. I don’t think the other guys wanted to leave me in my current state (depressedas fuck), but Galaxy needed to get home to Aidan, D-Low had a date, and Penn was going back to the arena for a goalie meeting.
I’ve sent Hannah three texts but so far, no reply. She should be in Helena by now.
“Should I drive up there and try to talk to her?” I ask him as I toss my phone back on the bar.
“No.” He shakes his head. “I think probably wait for her to text back.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” I know he’s right, but I hate this. I can’t fix it if she won’t talk to me.
We sit in silence. My leg bounces and my brain is working hard to unscramble the world’s biggest fuck-up.
“Was it wrong for me to want to make her life easier?” I ask him.
“I don’t think that’s why she’s pissed.”
