“She loves you.” Maggie’s voice sounds regretful.
“Mom.” I feel the tension in Tucker’s voice all the way in here. “She can’t stay. I feel bad about disappointing her, but it’s just not gonna work. She wants more than I ever would have imagined. I need her to leave. I just don’t know how to tell her.”
My heart.
Stops.
Beating.
“That is a problem.”
I can hardly breathe. How have I been so wrong?
“You need to be more careful in the future. Who you allow into L.T. and Leeland’s lives. I imagine she thought the two of you had a future together.”
But he asked me here. We’d planned it together. All those conversations. All those texts.
Last night.
His touch.
My heart beats so loudly in my own ears that I miss Tucker’s response.
I don’t know where to go. I’m trapped. What’s happening? Am I that naïve?
“Well, Tuck.” His mom sounds resigned. “It’ll break her heart, but you can’t allow her to stay on thinking things will work themselves out.”
“I hate this.” I hear anguish in his voice. He hates that he has to break things off with me?
Oh, my God. He doesn’t want me here. That’s why he didn’t want me to go with him this morning. He realized he doesn’t love me. I can’t breathe. I don’t want to breathe.
I can’t sit here and listen anymore.
I spin on my heel and run right into Jessamine.
The pity on her face is like a second punch to the gut. I see no spite in her face. This woman has shown me nothing but antagonism since the day I arrived, and her sympathetic expression only serves to make the words I just overheard all too real.
She winces. “Shit.” And then she shakes her head.
“I need to go…” I don’t know where I need to go. But I can’t bear to see Tucker’s face right now.
He wants to send me away.
He doesn’t love me.
None of this is real for him.
I push past Jessamine, but she follows me right into Tucker’s room. I’m barely aware of her company. In fact, I don’t see anything but memories streaming through my mind. Memories of the seven nights in St. Thomas.
And here on his ranch.
He made love to me. Why? Was that all this was to him? Physical?
Shadows loom everywhere. How could I have been so wrong?
I’ve been so sure of his love.
I collapse onto the bed and bury my face in my hands. I can’t even cry right now. My nerves aren’t functioning. My blood freezes. How is my heart still pumping? Is this what it feels like to die?
