"I know."
"How are you sorry?" She said the words slowly then let out a little huff. "I mean, what are you saying exactly?"
He caught the hint of hope in her voice and hated to disappoint her, but he had to.
"I'm sorry I hurt you, but nothing has changed."
Her slight smile stiffened as though frozen in place.
"You're better off with someone else." He forced the words out.
Someone who’s not so messed up in the head.
She scoffed as her hands tightened on the steering wheel. "Would I really be better off with a womanizer like Zack Hastings, who asked me out, by the way."
Damon's heart thumped in his chest, hard and angry. "He did? When?"
"After word got around that you broke up with me." She darted another glance his way. "I told him no, of course."
"Why did you do that?"
"Seriously?" She rolled her eyes at him as though he was a three-year-old who wouldn't stop asking why. "You mean besides the fact that I’m in love with you?” Without giving him a chance to respond she went on. “I have no desire to be another one of his conquests.”
A surge of relief shot through Damon, which was stupid because he had no claim on Grace anymore. He shouldn't care who she dated. But he did.
"Maybe you think I'd be better off with Travis Brooks, who would likely be an abusive husband thanks to his drinking problems."
"Of course not." His words were vehement. The thought of anyone hurting Grace made his blood boil.
She spared him another lengthy look before returning her gaze to the road. "Tell me again why you think I'd be better off with someone else."
Damon clenched his jaw and shifted his gaze out the window again. He was slowly coming to accept the fact that others weren’t as bothered by his missing foot as he was or the possibility that he might not be able to father children. But after that scene back at the house, surely, Grace understood there was a lot more wrong with him than those two things.
"I'm going to say this one more time, so you understand nothing has changed as far as I'm concerned; I love you, Damon Knight." She swiped a stray tear from her cheek, pulling his attention back to her. "It took me way too long to get on the same page as you and admit it, but I'm fully immersed in this book. In our story."
Hearing her sayour storywas almost his undoing. He loved Grace. But he was too damaged right now to even think about picking uptheirbook.
He was trying to find the will to lie to her again; to tell her he didn't want a relationship with her when she spoke again.
"I know we're not even in the same book anymore, but..." Disappointment filled her voice as another tear rolled down her cheek. "I miss you. I miss our talks, sharing bucket list stuff, and joking and laughing with you. I miss my friend."
I miss you too.
But he couldn't tell her that. He didn't want her to think they could go back to the way things were, but he wanted to be her friend again. It would make it harder to keep his feelings for her from deepening—like that was possible—but maybe they could be friends again.
"I miss my friend too."
"You do?" Her face filled with surprise as she gave him another wide-eyed look.
"I do." He held up a hand. "But don't get your hopes up, Grace. I can't make you any promises until I work through...everything.”
Most days, he didn’t feel like that would ever happen.
“Just friends."He put heavy emphasis on the words.
"Just friends." Her lips turned up in an impish smile that made his heart skip a beat.
Oh boy, what have I done?
