Chapter 23
MARCUS
“Get up,” Wynter hissed.
Marcus blinked. The room felt deathly still. Wynter didn’t look happy. In fact, she looked utterly livid. She was spitting mad. But why? “Sweetheart—”
“Don’t call me that. Don’t you dare call me that.” Her eyes flitted up and scanned the room before the blush in her skin heated further. Then she turned her fiery gaze on him once more. “Now, Marcus. Get up.”
He swallowed hard, unsure if he could do as she asked with the way he suddenly felt weak.
He’d never done something this crazy. He’d always worn his heart on his sleeve.
People knew how he felt about stuff sometimes before he did.
But this? He’d known he wanted Wynter to be his since that first kiss when she’d come back.
“Wynter,” he rasped, his voice shaking. “Please…”
“Can we talk?” Wynter asked the question through gritted teeth.
“Say yes,” he whispered his plea. “Then we can talk. Wherever you want. About whatever you want.”
Wynter scoffed, her eyes narrowing at him. She didn’t look at their stunned audience, but then why would she? Wynter didn’t like to be put on the spot. And all at once, that was when it hit Marcus over the head.
The mistake he’d made because he hadn’t thought this part through.
Wynter had always been the girl who preferred to duck her head when confrontation came around. She didn’t like speaking up in class unless it was in biology. She smiled, but only for those who knew her best.
And he’d royally messed everything up.
Marcus staggered to his feet and glanced around the room, noting the varying degrees of emotion written on everyone’s faces.
It was the pity that got him the hardest. Jason, Isabelle, Mateo, and Mathew were the worst. The rest of his siblings and their significant others didn’t know the story all that well.
But they were clearly uncomfortable with the situation he’d put them all in.
Slowly, he turned to Wynter, but she was already pushing past him and heading down the hall toward her room. Marcus stared after her helplessly. This hadn’t gone according to plan, but maybe it was salvageable.
Someone in the room turned the music up again, thankfully. And Nora was drawing most of the attention to the kitchen, where she promised what she called the best sugar cookies in town.
Marcus started toward Wynter’s room, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him.
Mathew peered at him with that infuriating pity.
He felt bad for Marcus. Well, this wasn’t good at all.
The guy had a failed marriage under his belt.
He might say he was single on purpose, but Marcus had a feeling Mathew wanted to find someone as bad as anyone else.
Before Mathew could impart any of his wisdom on him, Marcus held up a hand. “Not now.” They didn’t even know each other all that well. And if Mateo had been the one to offer advice? Well, Marcus didn’t think he wanted to hear it from him, either. No one was going to be able to make this better.
Marcus made it to her room. The door wasn’t completely shut.
It had been left ajar, and he could hear Wynter on the other side muttering to herself as she paced her room.
He closed his eyes and lifted his face to the ceiling, counting to himself for several moments before he finally nodded and pushed the door open.
Wynter stopped the second she caught sight of him. There were tear streaks on her cheeks and her hair was more disheveled with wayward whisps framing her face. She pointed at him and snarled, “Shut the door.”
He flinched but did as he was told. Leaning against it, he shoved the ring box back into his pocket. She didn’t miss the movement, and it was like she’d turned into some kind of animal, fixating on the pocket where the box was now hidden. Then she blinked and lifted angry eyes toward him.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
Marcus stared at her blankly. “I asked you to marry me.”
She released a sharp laugh and threw her hands into the air. “Do you even know me? Do you know what I want?”
He cleared his throat. “I’m in love with you, Wynter.” He thought the confession would at least give her pause, but she didn’t even seem to hear him.
“You clearly don’t because you would have known that I don’t have any interest in getting married. But you do. You’ve always wanted to settle down and start a family.”
Marcus took a step toward her but stopped when she shot him a warning look. “I thought…” He frowned and stared at the floor. “I get that you’re scared.”
“Scared?” Her voice rose in pitch. “This isn’t about being scared. This is about my needs. I told you I didn’t want to get married. You knew this.”
His jaw clenched. “Yeah, but I thought things might have changed.”
Wynter shook her head, scoffing. “Why would you ever think something like that?”
“I don’t know,” his own voice rose. “Maybe because you and I have grown up since we were in high school. Maybe because we’re older and wiser, and this is a reasonable step for two people who care about each other.”
She gaped at him.
“You care about me, Wynter,” he said and pointed at her. “Don’t bother denying it. Everyone can see it’s written all over your face.”
“I wasn’t going to deny it,” she snapped. “But that doesn’t mean we’d be good together. It’s the opposite, in fact.”
“What?” Marcus strode toward her then, eating up the distance between them. “You’re not making any sense. Wanting to be with someone is the foundation of being good together.”
“You’re wrong. Two people can have chemistry. They can care about each other. Love each other, even. But if they can’t see eye-to-eye on the most basic parts of a relationship, then that relationship is doomed to fail.”
Marcus ignored her logic and plowed through with his own.
“Only when those two people aren’t willing to put forth the work.
We all have issues, Wynter. You’re not special in that regard.
But when you find someone who is willing to look past those issues and help you conquer them, then you give that person a chance.
” His chest was heaving and spots were forming in his vision.
He didn’t care that he was getting overworked.
This was important. She was important. And he wasn’t going to let her run away from this any longer.
Wynter sighed, her shoulders drooping. A spark of triumph lit the darkness in his soul, but it was snuffed out completely when she shook her head and slumped onto the edge of the bed.
She placed her face in her hands, and her voice sounded so defeated.
“That’s not how it works, Marcus. In the real world, that’s not how it works. ”
“What is that supposed to mean?” he demanded.
Slowly she lifted her eyes to him. “This is why I tried so hard to keep this from getting out of hand. I needed to keep you at arm’s length, so you didn’t develop feelings for me.”
He snorted derisively. “Well, you failed.”
Her flinch was like a dagger to the gut, and Marcus wanted nothing more than to pull her into his chest for a hug. She wouldn’t allow that, though. She’d only shove him away, and knowing that hurt even more.
“Marcus,” she whispered, pleading, “it’s not going to work.”
“Why?” he demanded, anger seeping back into his words. “You know you can stay. You don’t have any excuses.”
“What do you mean?” Even as she asked the question, the suspicion in her eyes told him he’d made yet another grave mistake.
Marcus groaned and dragged a hand down his face. “I saw the job offer.”
She didn’t gasp or react. Her expression remained stoic, blank. The only indication that she was upset about this revelation was the way her eyes flashed with accusation.
Wynter rose to her full height, her eyes flicking to the dresser where the letter had been when he’d found it. The letter wasn’t there anymore, so she must have moved it. But they both knew what she was thinking before she said it, voice low. “That was an invasion of privacy, Marcus.”
Her cold words sluiced through him, pain lancing in his chest.
“And that’s only one of many issues we’re dealing with.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” he asked, straightening.
She scowled at him. “You think you know me. You think you’re in love with me.
But you don’t have any clue what’s going on.
You’re in love with the idea of us. There’s no way that you could possibly want a future with me because you don’t fully understand what that would entail.
No one enters a marriage as blind as you clearly are.
The only thing I don’t understand is what was going through your head when you cooked up this whole plan.
What happens when you realize you’ve made a mistake? ”
“The only mistake I made was doing this in front of our family and friends,” he said. “I love you, Wynter.”
She shook her head. “You love who you think I am.”
He opened his mouth to protest, but she held up a hand.
“You need to leave, Marcus.”
“What?”
“Leave. I don’t want you here. I need space. This… this wasn’t okay.”
He folded his arms. “I’m not abandoning you.”
Based on her wince, he knew he’d hit the nail on the head. She was scared. Wynter might not know it yet, but she wanted this as much as he did; she just wasn’t sure how to get it. “I’m staying right here. We’re going to talk this out and—”
Wynter huffed out a breath and shook her head before she marched to her closet and pulled out a duffel bag.
“What are you doing?” Marcus asked, panic leeching into his voice.
“If you’re not going to leave, I am.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
She barked out another laugh. “Oh, I think we surpassed that a long time ago.”
No amount of pleading put a stop to Wynter’s packing. She gathered her belongings, and even as he followed her out of the house through the crowd of people still lingering, she didn’t stop her quest to be rid of him.
Wynter left him in the cold, standing on her driveway, watching her pull away from the house.
Marcus lost track of time as he stood outside until someone came out to retrieve him. Then he sat numbly in the living room as the partygoers took their leave. When it was only him and Nora, he refused to let her talk him into staying. “I should get going. I’m sorry this turned into such a mess.”
Nora offered him a sad smile. “She’ll come around.”
He shook his head, his hand pausing on the doorknob, his back to her. “No, I don’t think she will.”