Squeezing my eyes shut, I willed the tears to stop flowing, but they wouldn’t. The gates had been opened and there was no pulling them back.
“I hated every second of it,” he hissed. “But I couldn’t see a way to get Austin to back off. There was no evidence that he was involved. He was going to keep going after you.”
Smiling up at him, I wiped the tears once again. “Well, you got what you wanted. You killed any chance of us ever being together. You should be impressed with your work.”
“Bailey,” he whispered, stepping closer to me. His hands came to my cheeks and his thumbs brushed at the tears falling quickly. “Bailey, please.”
A tortured sob welled in my chest that I could no longer control. Tucking me into his arms, he held me as I cried, as I squeezed his shirt, wishing I could control my emotions just a little.
“I’m so sorry I did this to you. I’m sorry I ever said those horrible things to you, but I was so fucking terrified that I would lose you.”
“You did,” I whispered.
His chest stuttered beneath my fingers as he took a step back, holding my face in his hands. “Don’t say it’s over,” he whispered, sniffling as he pulled me against him. “Don’t tell me I can’t have you. Not when I’ve given up everything to keep you.”
His lips brushed against my face, down my neck, and then across my shoulder. Tears mingled in his kisses as he tucked me against him.
“I can’t,” I whispered. “You were with her.”
My voice shattered as I said the words, as I remembered seeing her on his lap and in his shirt the very next morning.
“You took something that was precious and you destroyed it.”
My words were barely audible, but I knew he understood.
Sucking in a tear-filled breath, I finally looked into his sad eyes. “You were always mine. Since the third grade, I have loved no one but you. I gave everything to you, and you turned around and?—”
I stepped out of his arms, wiping the snot dripping from my nose. I was so broken, losing every last ounce of strength I had inside me. Much more of this, and I wasn’t sure I would be able to walk away.
“It was as if I meant nothing to you,” I whispered.
“It wasn’t real,” he said, his lips trembling. “The kisses?—”
“They were my kisses!” I shouted.
“I didn’t sleep with her. I know that’s what you believe, but…I was drunk and she drove me home.”
I barked out a watery laugh at that. “And then she just ended up in your shirt?”
“I threw up on her. Vomited everywhere! By the time she got me cleaned up and into bed, I told her to just stay so she didn’t have to drive home that late at night.”
“That’s fucking rich,” I laughed.
“It’s the truth. She wore my clothes because hers were in the wash. She stayed on the couch the whole night, and if you ask her?—”
“Why would I even believe her?” I shouted. “You already lied to me once!”
“To protect you!”
“You made me a laughing stock of the town, Liam. For weeks, everyone pitied me because I fell so hard for you. And now you want me to just believe that none of it ever happened? I should just erase all the hurt you put me through?”
Stepping toward me, he grabbed my hand, pressing it hard against his chest. “I would have done anything to keep you alive. I knew what I was doing when I had her in that bar, and I knew there was a chance you might not forgive me. But Bailey, the other option—that asshole taking you from me—that was something I could never live with.”
The hard part was, I understood where he was coming from. The difficult choice that stood before him was very clear in my mind.
But there was no going back.
Not when it was all so fresh in mind. Not when I could still see the indifference in his eyes as he held her in his arms. Or when he stared at me like I was a nuisance as I picked him up at the hospital. I wasn’t sure I could ever erase how small he made me feel.
