Page 37 of Unstoppable Love

I stopped in the doorway from the living room into the kitchen. She opened the fridge and pulled out two bottled waters.

She held one out to me, and it trembled in her hand. My little sunshine might have been acting bold and blasé, but she was nervous.

“Tell me what’s going on.” I forced myself to soften my tone and rested my shoulder against the doorway. “You have a job in Denver. An apartment.”

“I told you I was taking time to figure out what I wanted. I made my decision.”

Again, with the emotionless response. Fuck that. I shoved off the wall and stepped toward her. She retreated before planting her feet and steeling her spine against my advance.

There she was. My little fighter. “Ava, drop the bullshit and the attitude and fucking talk to me.”

She pressed her glossy lips together, glanced around her kitchen, and sighed. “The only thing I ever wanted to do was raise a family in New Haven. I went to college, got a job, met Kip, and suddenly I was in Denver, and I hate the city. But I was doing it. Living a life, and I think the day Kip asked me to marry him, I realized how much of that life I didn’t actually like. I was waiting…” She trailed off, stared into my eyes, and there was emotion in them now. Sadness. But more, pain. And she only had that look when she looked at me. “Anyway, I think I was waiting for a different dream, but I finally realized that this small dream of mine is enough for me. The other one was too large, too impossible. It’d never work, so Lydia and I went to Florida and did a lot of talking. I did a lot of thinking, and I came up with a new plan.”

Something sparked. Something about her dream and being too small or too large. Something niggled at the edges of my memory as she spoke, but every time I reached for the connection, I missed it.

“Your dream was never too small.” I’d told her that in the truck that day on the way here.

“I know. It also never fit into the larger one. They were too different.” As she said it, she swallowed thickly. With a sniff, she then took a gulp of her water. “It was time to let that dream go to chase the one I could have.”

There was that pain again. Something I couldn’t place. I still had questions.

“What about your apartment?”

“It was a popular building, and they had a wait-list. I only had to pay one month’s rent and they found someone else to take it.”

“And your job?”

“I’m working remote. Traveling occasionally. They approved it since there’s a store in our county, so I can still go in there for content.”

I chewed my lip. Considered everything she said. But that didn’t explain… “So you bought a house?”

She was slipping away from me, right when I finally thought I could make my move. I felt her slip through my fingers.

I refused to let it happen.

“My parents gave me my inheritance early. Dad surprised me with the house.”

“That’s… that’s incredible.” And baffling. Wonderful. At least for Ava. Completely shitty for me. I tried to work up the courage to be happy for her, but it only made me angry.

“So that’s it? You’re done with Denver? Nothing you’ll miss?” I wanted her to admit it. Admit she felt something for me.

“No.” She shook her head, and with tears in her eyes, she shrugged. “There are things I’ll miss.”

I took a step forward. Closer. So close I could reach out and tug at a lock of her hair that was draped over her shoulder. It was the heat of summer, and she was in cutoff denim shorts and a tank top that showed a sliver of skin on her abdomen. Florida. She’d been in Florida. No wonder why she was so tan. It looked good on her, although everything looked good on her.

She blinked at my approach, lips parted. It was exactly how she looked at me the last time I saw her. Right before I kissed her.

“And me?” I asked, closer now. So close, I reached out and cupped her cheek with my palm. She flinched from the contact and closed her eyes. “Will you miss me?”

“Cameron…”

The name slipped from her throat on a whimper, and when her eyes opened again, they flared with anger. Pain, mostly, but there was so much anger in them, I stepped back. “You remembered,” she finally said, and shoved her hand to my chest. “Step back.”

“No.” Hell no. If I put space between us now, she’d bolt.

She glared at me.

I glared right back.

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