Iwantto.
I want to lift a stiff middle finger and let it do all my talking for me.
But instead, I keep walking, Amanda right on my heels, all the way out the door.
“I’m sorry—” she starts as we shove out into the thick, heavy, dark night air, but I cut her off with a look.
“You didn’t put us in the back. You didn’t treat me like an outcast. You didn’t snub my grandparents when they tried to hug you. You didn’t give a toast loaded with lies and insults. You didn’t do a fucking thing wrong. So don’t be sorry.”
“Okay,” she whispers.
She saysokay.
I hearbut I’m the one who got you into this mess.
“Continuing this was my idea,” I say quietly as we reach the car. “Stop blaming yourself.”
“They’re your family.”
“I don’t want to be related to dicks. If they don’t fucking knock it off, I’m never coming back. And that was true before tonight.”
She peers up at me, briefly illuminated by a flash of lightning while a heavy gust of wind makes her free-hanging curls rustle.
Storm’s coming.
Heat will break.
But this overwhelming desire to kiss Amanda, to assure her that this fake engagement might be the best thing to ever happen to me, that it might set me free, likely won’t stop anytime soon.
Fuck my family.
I mean it. I don’t want to be related to dicks.
Chapter 22
Amanda
I don’t know what to say on the drive home.
Dane’s jaw is tight, and he’s focused straight ahead as we leave town and head back to the cabin.
He could be losing his family.
And it’s my fault.
We’ve taken this too far. We’re pushing too hard for something that will never happen.
And I don’t know how to fix it.
I want to.
I want to fix this for him. I want him to be able to come home and visit Lorelei and see his dad and his family without feeling stressed.
Buthow?
Even if we figure out why the feud started in the first place, will that be enough to solve a problem that’s been in this town for well over a century?
Can our grandparents actually get over it? And Dane’s uncle?
