Page 50 of Dr. Baby Daddy

Maybe there’s a part of him that’s as scared as I am of what happens next for us, but I can’t help him alleviate those fears ifhe isn’t willing to talk to me. It’s time to stop beating myself up for it and start thinking about the next chapter of my life.

No matter how painful it is to think about the next phase in my life without him.

Today, I’m letting him go and moving on with my life. I deserve to be happy.

I just don’t know if I can ever be as happy as I am with him.

CHAPTER 23

OLIVER

The sun is too bright as I step outside the apartment building. My headache continues to pound — the same way that it has for the last two weeks.

I’m starting to think that my body is punishing me for putting distance between me and Izzy.

All I’m going to do is drag her down. She doesn’t deserve to sit around waiting for me to come home every night. She shouldn’t have to sit around and wonder if I won’t be home for two or three days.

She deserves better than me.

I round the corner of the building and my chest collides with something hard. With a groan, I take a step back while a stack of flattened boxes falls to the ground.

My heart stops in my chest as I look at who I walked into. Izzy sighs and crouches down to stack the boxes again before picking them up.

There’s a lump in my throat as I stoop down beside her and pick up the stack. She stands, her ponytail swaying as she takes a step to the side.

“Sorry.” She takes the boxes from me. “I should have been watching where I was going.”

It’s the first thing she’s said to me in nearly a week. She hasn’t sent any messages or tried to call me during that time. The week before that, I didn’t answer any of her calls or messages when she tried to reach out.

Victor has said before that self-sabotage is my special skill.

I nod to the cardboard in her hand. “What’s with the boxes?”

Her cheeks flush the pretty shade of pink that I can’t get enough of. “I have movers coming on Friday. I have to get as much packed as possible before then.”

She should have just driven a knife through my chest. It would have been easier than listening to what she just said.

Izzy is moving. Things have gotten so uncomfortable between us that she’s leaving an apartment she loves just to get away from me.

Not just to get away from me. Because of me. Because I spent an entire week barely acknowledging her existence. And then spent the next week not reaching out to her at all when she went silent.

I suck in a sharp breath and rock on my heels. “You’re moving?”

“Yeah.” She tucks the stack beneath her arms, her gaze darting around. Izzy doesn’t look me in the eyes even once as she tucks a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

The silence that stretches between us chokes the air. There is nothing I can say to her right now to make this situation better. I’m the one who pushed her away.

“I didn’t think that you would move. You’ve only been in the apartment for a few months and your show is coming up fast.”

Izzy’s glare is all the answer I need. Her moving is none of my business.

If I wanted it to be my business, I shouldn’t have pushed her away.

I did it for her own good. And mine. She was becoming a distraction. I would have been a distraction for her. Both of us have careers to focus on. We have lives that eat away at most of our time.

As I tuck my hands into my pockets, I stare down at her. Her cheeks look thinner than they were, and dark circles tint the skin beneath her eyes. Izzy’s glare is enough to make me look past her at one of the signs on the other side of the street.

I wish I could tell her everything that’s going through my head. If I do that, though, I’m going to tell her how much I care about her. The distance I’ve put between the two of us would be nothing but a memory.

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