“Being featured in that magazine would change everything. It would change my future. Allow me to break away from my dad’s company and finally form my own. A company that saves and restores historic properties instead of leveling them to make room for more condominiums.”
“You could’ve been straight with me,” I said, admiring his plan, hating his execution.
“Grace and I agreed on all the changes. Then you showed up.”
The take-out bag in my hand swung and spun in the wind. I imagined hitting him with it.
“I didn’t want to be the bad guy, but I needed you out of the house if I wanted to get started. I never expected this connection.” He motioned between us, eyes pleading. “I wish you could understand—” He stopped himself again, and my hackles rose impossibly further.
“The only reason I don’t understand is because you’ve never tried to tell me,” I snapped. “Instead, you lied and schemed.”
“I panicked!”
“You pretended to fix things and care about my comfort while intentionally making me miserable. You made sure the stove would give me problems, knowing I had to use it if I planned to stay so long. You probably blew out the pilot light on the hot-water tank. Then you set it to low after claiming to fix it.”
His sheepish look confirmed my accusations.
“Were there ever really bats in the bedroom fireplace, or was that a lie too?”
“There might’ve been a bat,” he said. “At some point.”
I scoffed and tried to get around him.
“Don’t go! Emma, please.”
I stopped. “What about the other night when I nearly froze to death?”
“The system’s old, and you’ve been here full time for two weeks. No one ever stays that long. Running lights, a blow-dryer, the stove—and I saw the space heater hiding behind the door in your room. The fuse box was bound to have a problem eventually.”
I shoved past him. “I wouldn’t have bought the damn space heater if you didn’t keep messing with the furnace! And I left my big blanket with you and Violet in the park that day.”
He turned and kept pace at my side. “I know. I have the blanket in my truck. Also, I didn’t blame your space heater. I understand why you needed it.”
I glared but kept walking.
He raised his palms again in peace. “I’d planned to tell you everything that night. I wanted to confess and sort it all out before things got worse. Then we nearly kissed again, and I freaked out.”
Breath whooshed from my mouth in a cloud of steam against the falling temperature. My steps faltered, and I plowed to a sudden stop. “You keep running away because you know you’re being an ass and lying to me. You keep coming back and playing with my emotions when you know what I came here to do.”
Davis ran a hand through his sopping hair, then over his rain-slicked face. “I’m so sorry. I hate the way things are, but you’re right. You came here to stop looking for love, and I knew we couldn’t come back from this. I had to tell you what I’d done, and I didn’t deserve your forgiveness. We were over before we ever began.”
I bit my trembling lip, gut wrenched from the loss of what might’ve been. “The worst part,” I croaked, no longer caring to hide my emotional overload, “is that none of this had to happen. If you would’ve just told me the whole truth on the night we met, I would’ve moved out instead of settling in, and we’d both be happy right now.”
The weight of a dozen failed relationships settled on my shoulders, and an ugly truth appeared. I’d always blamed my family or my job forruining my prospects at love. But here, in Amherst with Davis, the only common denominator was me. Things had fallen apart before getting off the ground because I’d wanted a man who lied to my face every day for the sake of his job. The irony was not lost.
“What?” Davis asked, stepping bravely into my personal space. “What are you thinking right now, Emma?”
Spears of icy rain stung my cheeks as I raised my tear-filled eyes to his.
“You want us to be honest,” he said. “Take your own advice and let me have it.”
I think I’m cursed in love,I declared silently.I’ll never have the one thing I’ve always wanted, and this catastrophe of a would-be romance is one more way the universe is telling me to let that dream go.Hot tears rolled over my frozen cheeks. “I was wrong to kiss you that night. You knew it, but I didn’t want it to be true. I came here because I needed the time and space to find happiness on my own. I made a big deal out of that.” And I’d blown it immediately upon arrival. “I caused ripples in my family. Had a huge fight with my pregnant sister. Forced my parents, who want to retire, to work full time again. All so I could forge a new path for myself—and I turned my back on all of it the moment I saw you.”
Something darkened in his gaze. “What are you saying? You really think what we have is a mistake?”
“What do we have?” I asked. It surely wasn’t romance. Not the kind I wanted. Were we friends? My friends didn’t lie, then keep up the ruse.
My heart ached so deeply I pressed a hand against my chest, hoping not to collapse. I’d caused this mess—unintentionally, maybe—but I was the one on a mission. If I’d stuck to my goal, everything would be completely different.
