33. Chase
Chase
# Never make promises you can’t keep
I t fucking kills me to say goodbye to her. To stare into her tear-filled eyes and make a promise that I have no way of proving I’m going to keep. I asked her to trust me and I believe that she does, but I have a sinking feeling she’s thinking I’m going to fly back to LA and forget all about her.
“I’ll call you as soon as I land, okay?”
She nods, biting down on her lip.
“You and Angelina be careful driving back, won’t you?” She’s a perfectly good driver, swerving into Kelly’s Superstore aside, but I’m still going to worry about her until she’s home safe.
That at least gets me a smile. “We will. Say hi to Faraday for me, won’t you?”
I laugh, knowing I will never not see that car and call it that now. What the hell has she done to me? “Yeah, I will.”
She sighs and rests her forehead on my chest, and I tip her chin up with my pointer finger until she’s looking up at me once more. “We’re going to make this work, Addie.”
“I know. When will I see you?”
I swallow down the knot of guilt. “I’m going to try my best to get to Juniper Ridge for New Year’s. I have a huge project that I have to get wrapped up and I’m going to be working all over the holidays.”
“I know. Me too. Christmas is our busiest time.”
“We’ll make it work.”
“Yeah, sure.”
I fucking hate the way that she says it like that. I know it will be hard, but people have long-distance relationships all the time.
My Uber pulls up and I wrap her in my arms and kiss her so hard, she’ll still feel my lips on hers until I see her again.
When I get into the cab, she waves me off, a smile on her face even though I can see the tears rolling down her cheeks.
I hate this, but I have a life and responsibilities in LA that I can’t just leave behind.
As soon as I landed three days ago, I headed straight to my office and I’ve barely left since.
The Dallas job has been taking up way too much of my time, not to mention some headaches popping up from a project that was completed weeks ago.
But some asshole got a copy of some building code regulations he says we’re in breach of, even though I know for sure we’re not.
Still doesn’t stop the asshole trying to screw us over though.
Keeley pops her head into my office. “You asked me to tell you when it was six o’clock.”
Shit! I did. I can’t believe it’s already that time—the time I agreed to call Addie.
I hate these all-too-brief calls, especially when she always sounds so sad when they end.
It’s not enough. Never enough where she’s concerned.
And at the end of every call, I wind up feeling guilty as hell that I’m not giving her enough of my time.
“You also have that new meeting scheduled in ten minutes,” Keeley reminds me.
Fuck! Addie was right. This long-distance thing isn’t going to work. My job is my whole fucking life. I don’t know when that happened, but it did. Like it or not, I can’t live this life and have her too. No matter how much I might want to.