Page 81 of The Billionaire's Runaway Bride

“No. Yes.” I groan. “I don’t know.”

“Let’s clarify this, first. You love her, right? That’s the big, bad, scary truth you’re too chicken shit to admit?”

I did. I wasn’t scared to tell her that. “No. I told her.”

“And she didn’t say it back?”

“What, are we in high school?” I shake my head. “Declarations of love aren’t the issue here. It’s that she couldn’t choose going for it over being scared into returning to him.”

He holds up his hand. “But you do. You’re in love with her.”

I nod. “Yes. I am completely in love with her.” I don’t think I’ll ever be able to fall out of love with her either.

“Then what the hell are you waiting for?” He rolls his eyes. “I get it. Meeting her changed your life. You don’t want to be a playboy anymore; you only want her. What I can’t make sense of is that you’re not making it happen.”

“Because it’s not my decision to force on her. She has to choose me.” I sit back and stretch.

“But that’s not you, man. I hear you. I get the big picture. She’s been sheltered and controlled. Got it. But you’re not a pushover. You can’t sit on the sidelines. It’s not in your nature. How the hell haven’t you just gone after her already? Why haven’t you tried harder yet?”

I lick my lips, hating that it’s the compromise that I’ve failed. I’ve been so careful to let Lauren make her choices that I stepped too far back, more or less giving up to wait for her to come to me. In this situation, where things could very well become dangerous, it sounds more like I’ve abandoned her for the sake of pride, my pride.

“I’m not saying I didn’t make a mistake,” I tell him as I fiddle with the label on my beer, “but she still chose her old life.”

“What about the future? Her new life?”

I swallow hard. Regret has been my constant companion since she left. “She doesn’t want me in it.”

“No. She didn’t want you to suffer. It’s not that she didn’t want you,” he argues.

I groan again and rub my face. “I—”

His phone pings with a notification, and I sigh, letting him tend to it. He doesn’t move though, just raises his brows.

“You’re not going to check that?” I ask.

“Check what? That was your phone.”

We laugh as I get it out of my pocket. “Hasn’t made a peep all day. Guess I forgot what it sounds like.”

I glance at the screen and freeze.

It’s a text. It’s not any old message, it’s the one I’ve been waiting for. The one I was thinking about and discussing with Dalton.

“You okay?”

I don’t look at him, too glued to my phone as I unlock it and read it out loud.

“Lauren.”

“She contacted you?” he asks.

“Oh, shit.”

“What. Dude, what did she say?”

“I’ve made a mistake. Please. Help me.”

I slowly lift my head and face Dalton.

---