Page 174 of Hard Pass

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“It means some people don’t think past survival when their whole life is burning down.” He gives me a knowing look. “You asked for honest.”

“Unfortunately.”

“So what happened?” he asks.

“I told her I loved her.”

Lucas goes still for a second and then exhales slowly. “And?”

I bark out a laugh. “And? That’s all you’ve got?”

“What do you want? Fireworks? A parade?” He taps his glass against my bottle. “Congratulations, you used your words.”

“Fuck off.”

“There’s the Valor I know.”

I shake my head but some of the tension in my chest eases.

“She froze,” I say. “She stood there looking at me like I’d hit her with a blitz she didn’t see coming.”

“In other words, she didn’t say it back.”

“Bingo.”

“But she didn’t say she didn’t feel it,” he says and I glare at him. “There’s a difference.”

“She didn’t say anything.”

“Hmm.” He looks around the bar before coming back to me. “Ever gotten hit so hard you forget what play you called?”

Where’s he going with this?

“Yeah. Of course.”

“Did that mean you didn’t know it?”

“No.”

“Exactly,” he says with a definitive nod.

Fucking hell.

I groan. “I left.”

“I figured since you’re sitting here.”

“I needed a minute.”

“No,” Lucas says. “You wanted control.”

“No, I—”

“You told her something you couldn’t take back,” he says. “Then when she didn’t hand you the exact response you needed fast enough, you bailed before she could reject you.”

“That’s not—”