Prologue
Brooke
ONE MONTH LATER
Part of me thought Tobias would stop me from leaving Wyoming. That he would call and tell me he was being a freaking idiot and realized what a dumbass he is. That what we have is as special as I thought it was.
Instead, I’m the one calling him. Like a dumbass.
It’s not to beg him to change his mind, so I guess there’s that. Unfortunately, he’s the only person I can think of who might be able and willing to help me with a problem that has popped up.
Pacing across my empty apartment, I wait as the line rings, worried he won’t pick up.
That I’m going to have to make a choice I really don’t want to make.
I’ve already given up this place and signed a new lease on a place fifteen minutes from my new job.
I can’t back out of either decision without losing a lot of money. Money I don’t have.
Just when I’ve almost given up hope, Tobias’s deep voice answers. “Brooke. I didn’t think I’d ever hear from you again.”
A tiny part of me wants to think he sounds relieved.
Hopeful even. But that part of me is the clueless idiot who thought he’d move with me, so I ignore her.
I’m ready to build a life. One that’s completely different from the way I’ve lived up to this point.
I want stability. Security. I don’t want to worry how I’m going to pay the bills or figure out how to exist when the power’s shut off.
The job I’ve been offered in California will provide that. Tobias won’t. He’s made that very clear.
“I’m actually calling you for a favor.” I lay out the reason I had to dial his number one last time, explicitly explaining—for both of us—I’m not trying to change how he feels.
“I just found out my new apartment in California won’t let me bring Copper.
You’re the only person I can think of who might be willing to put up with her, and I was hoping… ”
It’s a big ask, but the miniature poodle I adopted as soon as I started my paid internship and could afford a pet is a good girl. She might be a little…overly friendly with certain items, but she’s not mean or aggressive. Doesn’t bark incessantly or tear things up.
If there was any way I could get out of my lease, I would, but they made it clear I’d signed the papers and owed them twelve months’ worth of rent whether I lived there or not.
Since I’ve barely got a few hundred dollars to my name after paying the deposit on that place and the moving company to take me there, it would be impossible for me to afford backing out.
“You were hoping I would take her?” Tobias finishes for me. It’s impossible to tell from the tone of his voice how he feels about my proposal. Not that I’d trust my judgment on that anyway considering how poorly I read his feelings about our relationship.
So I start sweetening the deal. “I can send food and snacks and toys. I’ll pay any vet bills she has.” Once I start getting paychecks that shouldn’t be a problem. “I know it’s a lot, I just thought maybe—”
“I’ll take her.”
My feet stop pacing and I gape at the undressed windows. “You will?” I was hoping he would, but not confident it was a possibility. “Really?”
“Of course.” Tobias scoffs. “I’m not a fucking asshole.”
Is that how he thinks I see him? Simply because he didn’t want to be with me? Maybe he doesn’t know me as well as I thought.
“I know you’re not an asshole. I wouldn’t have asked you to move to California with me if I thought you were an asshole.” I know what it’s like to build a life with a man like that. I watched my mother craft hers brick by brick, until the walls were so high she couldn’t escape them.
I will never allow that to happen to me.
“Brooke.” The way he says my name—like he’s about to repeat all the reasons he believes it doesn’t make sense for us to stay together when I move—is too much.
I understand his reasoning, and have no desire to revisit it.
“I’ll drop her off at your mom’s house on my way out of town.
” My throat tightens a little thinking about not having Copper to come home to every night.
At least she’ll be with someone I know will find her quirky ways as amusing as I do.
“Thank you for doing this. I really appreciate it.”
I hear him try to say something else, but I disconnect the line before he can get whatever it is out. I held up really well in the restaurant, and I don’t want to fall apart in front of him now.
The same way I won’t end up with an asshole who controls me, I won’t ever beg a man to want me.
Not even Tobias Bradshaw.