Easy On Me (Ruined #2)

Prologue

Jase

“So I think we’re done.” I dropped my keys on the counter with a clatter. Elizabeth rolled her eyes and scooped them up, dangling them off her finger before laying them in the wooden dough bowl. I wrestled down a juvenile urge to move them back.

Elizabeth sauntered to the refrigerator like I hadn’t spoken at all – her reaction to everything she didn’t want to acknowledge.

Put up a freaking brick wall.

Anger burned under my skin, pooling into my gut to coil up into the knot of resentment I’d carried there for months. I’d been thinking about getting out for days. Tonight cemented it. The way she talked to her sister Hannah, the way she refused to listen to me?

I was done with her.

“You can keep the ring.” Thank the good Lord I hadn’t given Elizabeth my great-grandma’s ring because I’d known she would want something bigger, more on trend. “And I’ll eat the deposits.”

Water bottle in hand – the expensive one that was all over Instagram – Elizabeth turned to look at me, annoyed confusion twisting her perfectly groomed brows together. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m breaking the engagement, and we’re over.” I braced my hands on my hips. “I’ll make the cancellation calls.”

Another eye roll. She turned away, walking through to the living room, exaggerating the sway of her hips. “You weren’t over us earlier.”

My ears burned.

I shouldn’t have gone there when I came over to shower after work before we went out, but that horse was already out of the barn.

I’d been frustrated with her for months and worked out a lot of that discontent through sex.

I hadn’t planned to end things tonight. I’d loved her, and I wanted to be a steady, stand-up man like Daddy and Grandaddy.

So I’d flirted with the idea for weeks, while I tried to convince myself things weren’t as bad as I thought.

Tonight, the way she’d acted with her sister?

Sealed it. I did not want to be married to this woman. I couldn’t share my life with someone I no longer liked.

Swallowing an irritated snort, I strode to the doorway between the kitchen and living room. I watched her hang her purse by the front door, trying to catch a glimpse of the girl I’d loved. I saw her every so often, still, before @LittleTownLuxe suffocated her.

I didn’t mind hard work. Didn’t mind working on a relationship – I’d watched Mama and Daddy, Grandma and Grandaddy for years. Mama and Daddy had clawed their way back from the cusp of divorce about the time I started dating Elizabeth my senior year of high school.

But I didn’t want to work on anything with the woman she’d become.

Lewis – my grandaddy – was a codger, but he was wise. Sometimes rot couldn’t be cut out and a tree had to be cut down. My anger and resentment, coupled with her refusal to listen and consider changing her behavior?

This tree was headed for death.

“Toss my toiletries.” I’d slung my dirty clothes in the back floorboard of my truck earlier, and I hadn’t left anything here in weeks. “I’ll pack your stuff up and drop it at the store.”

Elizabeth, examining herself in the living room mirror and eyeing me in the glass at the same time, paused mid hair fluff. Blonde hair in an impeccable fall over one shoulder, she performed a slow spin, pirouetting on one heel to stare me down. “What are you talking about?”

See? This right here was what I was talking about.

“Elizabeth.” I ground my back teeth until my jaw hurt. “I’m done.”

Eyes narrowed, she stared at me. Her expression shifted to something ugly and feral. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

And here we went.

Thing was, I didn’t have to go where she was going anymore. I’d put a ring on her finger but not the one that mattered.

I didn’t have to stay here any longer.

Taking a step away, I turned and walked out the back door.