“No, youthink,” he argued. When my eyes rolled, he leaned forward, teeth tightly clenched as he claimed, “I haven’t been with anyone in a long time.”
“What? A week?”
If I thought I’d hurt him before, it was nothing compared to then.
Long, excruciating seconds passed as he stared at me before shoving his chair back and striding from the table, toward the front door.
But just as he reached it, he turned and took two large steps toward me. “The last time I even tried picking someone up waswhen Chloe first started working at Shadow, and do you knowwhyI went after her?”
Because she’s the exact opposite of me.
Bright, bubbly, and captivating, whereas I was basically the human version of an aggressive dog. Adorable outfits always paired with high heels, whereas I wore tactical boots and clothes I could move in. Curvy, whereas I was basically all hard lines.
Without waiting for anything from me, Gray seethed, “Because, once again, you’d just reminded me that you couldn’t stand the thought of ending up with me.”
My stare snapped his way at the shocking statement, but I didn’t say anything as he continued with a defeated laugh.
“Briggs had just given us our assignments for the Donut, and you looked like you’d been served a death sentence because you had to go undercover in a school, and you hate kids. When I started teasing you about it, you said, ‘The thought of being around kids is almost as horrifying as the thought of ending up with you.’”
I mouthed the last words with him.
I remembered that night well.
Not just because we’d been told we were doing another Donut—a service Shadow Industries provided but didn’t advertise; one that typically required us going around the law to help people in desperate need—but because of what I’d said. I remembered every lie I told Gray in a vain effort to get my heart in check.
“And then, the next morning, there was Chloe,” Gray continued. “Someone new. Someone who wasn’t you. Before that?Years.” He held up a hand when I started arguing and backed up toward the front door again. “I date. I go ondates. I know what everyone assumes of that and of me—but they’re just dates because I like being around people, and because what’s the point of sitting at home, alone, whenyou’renot gonna be there,andyou’vemade it known from the day I met you that you can’t stand the thought of us together?”
A harsh breath bled from him as he opened the door and glanced outside. With one last look at me, he gave me every ounce of his pain and frustration. “But sure, Monroe...it’s been about a week.”
Then he was out of my condo, and I let him go.
There was no point in trying to stop him. Not when my heart was stumbling and tripping over itself at the mere implication of what he’d said, all while I tried so hard to build my walls faster and faster because I knew at least half of it was lies.
Which meant, maybe all of it had been a lie.
After all, it was like Gray said last night: we tell each other things—we tell each other everything. At least, we used to. So, when I’d gotten the unexpected news of my mom’s passing just a handful of hours after finding out I’d unintentionally married my best friend, I’d still gone straight to him.
The shock and heartbreak of losing my mom had outweighed every ounce of my fear, anger, and vulnerability from that morning. But Gray hadn’t answered when I’d knocked. When I’d called, he hadn’t picked up. And when I’d finally given in and reached out to Rush to letsomeoneknow I was racing to California, I’d been informed that Gray had been locked away with Wren Pearson ever since brunch ended—and not for the first time that trip, or at all. A nauseating fact that had been confirmed by the other members of our team in the following months.
Not that I’d asked.
Not that I’d doubted them.
“Because, once again, you’d just reminded me how much you couldn’t stand the thought of ending up with me.”
“Someone new. Someone who wasn’t you.”
“What’s the point of sitting at home, alone, whenyou’renot gonna be there, andyou’vemade it known from the day I met you that you can’t stand the thought of us together?”
Hours later, I was thinking of nothing but those words.
Not surprisingly, I hadn’t heard from Gray.
Surprisingly, Ihadheard from Briggs.
But when he’d demanded we meet in the tiny, adorable town of Huntley—where he now lived with Lainey and his niece, Kaia—I hadn’t expected the traitor to force me over to Lainey’s family’s pick-your-own farm.
Not that I had anything against their farm. It always looked incredible when it was all decked out for people to come pick blueberries or pumpkins, depending on the season. And even more so now, with how it was currently set up for a pre-Easter festival, of sorts. I just had a massive issue with crowds, and an even bigger issue with a certain sister of Lainey’s, who, as a surprise to literally no one, just so happened to be there.
