Chapter 25 #2
That answered one question. “What’s your last name?”
“She switched it to Foster when our dad walked out.”
“Is he alive?”
One dip of his head and an unreadable look in his eye. “Prison.”
Probably better for the guys, then.
I caught movement at the doorway of John’s office. “Where’s a good place to talk?”
“Our apartment smells like the worst incense known to man,” Lane answered. “There’s a restaurant at the end of the street.”
“I’ll meet you there.”
Cruz blew out of the building before us. He slowed with a “Nice.”
Lane gave a low hum of appreciation. Both were moving at a glacial pace. Irritated, I curved around them.
And then my gaze landed on what had their focus.
Wynn. Her white winter coat was zipped to her chin and a pink stocking hat sat on her head, but her light hair spread out over the material of the jacket.
She had her hands shoved in her coat pockets, and her long legs were in thick gray leggings.
The soft brown boots on her feet only completed the sexy-snow-bunny look.
Her dark eyes reflected the windows of the funeral home behind us as she studied my brothers.
“What are you doing here?” I had meant to keep her from all this, from the attitude I’d known my brothers must have. Wynn wasn’t to be exposed to the nastiness of Gianna’s life when I went to the rental office to quit the lease. Lane would have to foot the bill himself. No free handouts.
“Bruh, she’s yours?” The appreciation in Cruz’s tone earned a glare from me. He didn’t flinch.
Lane must’ve sensed the tension between me and Wynn. He only smirked and dragged Cruz to a white Chevy Malibu with a busted front bumper. Gianna hadn’t mentioned that.
I crossed the parking lot. She was parked next to me, our cars next to each other like we were a team, only I’d left her behind. I understood she was angry, but she shouldn’t have come. This wasn’t her business.
“Wynn—”
She held up a fluffy Scandinavian-patterned mittened hand. “I came here for one reason and one reason only.”
The old Malibu’s engine started, and a loud growl filled the air. Christ, that car was a piece of shit. Her gaze darted to the left. Lane was pulling out. He openly stared as he drove by us. The passenger window was open with a cloud of smoke drifting out.
Cruz grinned like a jackass, and then they were gone.
When I turned to look back at Wynn, she stepped forward, grabbed the lapels of my coat and rose to her tiptoes. The coolness of her lips turned molten instantly. I might not want her here, but I’d always want her kiss.
I pulled her close and delved into her mouth, tasting the minty gum she must’ve chewed on the way to Bozeman.
She wrapped up the kiss almost regretfully and pulled away. “I wanted to show you what a proper goodbye looked like.”
Wynn
He had no right to be as handsome as he was, his face carved as distinctly as the mountains that surrounded this town. The charcoal-gray wool coat hung open, and the scarf was loose around his neck.
His mouth was in a line. Stubbornness? Frustrated that I had found him?
I hated to intrude on his time in Bozeman, but there was no moment like now.
Not for me. I couldn’t wait around for him, and unfortunately, this was the only place I’d thought he might be.
If I hadn’t caught him here, I’d have had to go to Denver to prove my point.
“I know the way I left—”
I flattened my hand on his chest, grateful my glove was too thick for his body heat to seep in. I had to stay strong. “The way you keep leaving. The way you don’t talk to me. The way you hold yourself away from everyone who cares about you. It’s more than I’m willing to take.”
He frowned, but his gaze sharpened. “What are you saying?”
I blew out a breath and suppressed a shiver.
The cold had sunk into my bones long ago and blasting the heat all the way to Bozeman hadn’t helped.
“I’m saying I came here only to say goodbye.
I refuse to let you ditch me again, and I’m not waiting around for you.
I’m saying I’m done, Myles. I’m saying I understand that I was the only one invested in us.
” I let out a humorless laugh. “Or the possibility of an us, I guess. Since, honestly, you never gave me an indication we could ever be more. Or that you wanted to be more.”
“I wanted…” His brow was furrowed.
Sadness swamped me. I was leaving him. Standing right in front of him and telling him I was gone, and he couldn’t bring himself to open up. He wasn’t reassuring me I was wrong.
Because there was no us. Never had been.
Tears burned the backs of my eyes. I couldn’t cry in front of him.
A girl had to have her pride. I’d already stalked him and gotten a job at his company.
Then I’d flown to him within a few hours of his drunk dial.
I stank of desperation, and that wasn’t the woman I wanted to be.
He might be the guy I wanted, but he wasn’t the partner I deserved. Just like he’d said.
“You have what you always wanted.” I took my hand off him, a deliberate move. Calm. Reasoned. So unlike the storm inside me. “It’s only today I realized it. I can’t put my wishes in your head.” My throat constricted. “In your heart.”
His scowl deepened. “Wynn…”
“I hope…” I had hoped for so many things.
A little girl’s fantasies about a tortured kid who’d only dreamed of being left alone when he grew up.
“I hope you don’t let your need to isolate yourself affect any relationship you can build with your brothers.
” I took one last look at his glacial blue eyes, the cut of his jaw, and the neatly combed lines in his hair. “Goodbye, Myles.”
His confused and lost look snapped to anger. “What the fuck, Wynter?”
I would cling to his slip. Calling me Wynter instead of Wynn. Almost like he saw the real me and not just the temporary executive assistant he could fuck to make himself feel better.
I went around my car to the driver’s door. “Goodbye.”
“Wynn.” One icy word that cut through the cold winter air.
“No, Myles, I’m done.” I faced him and let the sadness snowball into righteous rage. We could’ve been so damn good together. We could’ve figured out the distance—hell, I would’ve moved. For him.
No more. I would break ground on my new house in the spring, and by fall, I would have my own place to go with my good job at Copper Summit. I would create a beautiful life for myself. Just like both sets of my parents wanted.
“I deserve better.” My voice shook. Now I was warm.
I let the fury sweep through me. What we could’ve had was right there.
He’d left it behind, time after time after time.
“I deserve to be wooed. I deserve flowers and nice dinners and real conversation.” I lifted my chin.
“I deserve to be trusted. I deserve to be treasured. I deserve so much more than the scraps you gave me. The scraps you tossed my way because you knew I’d follow the scent like a mouse heading toward a trap.
Only there was no trap, just an empty cage and a selfish man. ”
He recoiled. “Selfish? I never asked for you to get involved in my life.” He didn’t crowd me, but he moved so he wasn’t standing directly behind my car. “I wasn’t the one who made the first move.”
“Trust me,” I said bitterly. “I’m fully aware. Rest assured, you no longer have to worry about me.”
“Goddamn it, Wynn. I didn’t—”
“Let’s skip the list of everything we did and didn’t do.
” I opened my door. “If it’s an apology you want, then I’m sorry.
I’m sorry I was at the Baileys’ when you were there.
I’m sorry I assumed too much into how you read to me.
I’m sorry I applied for that job, and I’m sorry I kept pursuing you.
You didn’t ask for any of it, and I guess I finally realize that you don’t want any of it.
I hope everything goes well with your brothers. ”
I got into my car. He didn’t move.
He stayed in that one inconvenient spot as I backed out and drove away.
Hot tears streaked down my face. My hands were trembling. Should I pull to the side of the road? What if he followed me?
But one check of the rearview mirror showed no familiar black car behind me. He wasn’t following me.
I caught my red-rimmed eyes in the mirror. “Stupid girl. It’s time to move on.”