Page 202 of Holding On To Good

She didn’t get to look at him like that, confused and scared. Didn’t get to throw his promises in his face.

She didn’t get to ask so much from him.

Not when she wouldn’t give him even the smallest bit in return.

“I’ll be damned if I’m going to let you hold me to something I never should have been asked to promise in the first place.”

“I asked because I wanted to ensure that no matter what happened, we’d always be in each other’s lives!”

“You were looking for an escape route. An easy out for when you could no longer tell yourself all we were doing was just mindless fucking.”

Her head snapped back, her expression stricken. When she spoke, it was a whisper, raw with pain. “Why are you trying to hurt me this way?”

“I’m not.” But a part of him warned him he was. That he was too angry right now. Too focused on protecting his own heart to worry about hers. That he wasn’t being fair. “I can’t be your friend. And I can’t run a business with you.” He let his gaze run over her, drinking her in despite his anger, his own pain. Knowing this was the last time he’d ever get to see her like this—with her lips swollen from his cock and kisses, her cheeks and chin pink from his beard, her hair messy from his hands. “I can’t be the guy who waits for you. Not anymore.”

His words hung in the air between them. A hit to his pride. A confession of how long he’d been silently infatuated with her.

The last truth he’d ever give her.

“You haven’t been waiting for me,” she said, soft and sad and resigned. “I’m convenient. A safety net. A safe, familiar way to move onto the next phase of your life. You didn’t choose this. You didn’t choose me. You just… let it happen. And all I’m asking now, is for you to let the end happen, too, without breaking our friendship.”

But that wasn’t all she was asking.

She wanted him to go back into the box she’d designated for him. Play the roles he’d always played.

Business partner.

Friend.

She wanted him to be grateful for whatever scraps of attention, of affection, she gave him and not ask for anything more. To be glad they’d had these few weeks together but push them to the recesses of his memory.

To forget what it was like to touch her. To be inside of her. To pretend his feelings weren’t real.

Like he’d done for the past sixteen years.

She wanted him to let her go while she got to hold on to his friendship. She wasn’t his safety net.

He was hers.

And that was no longer enough for him.

“I can’t,” he told her.

He wouldn’t.

Not even for her.

“I’ll call Lincoln,” he continued, knowing he was being a dick bringing up J&K’s attorney, but unable to stop that train now that it’d started rolling on the tracks. “Set up a meeting for after the wedding to start dissolving the partnership.”

Chin wobbling, she stepped forward, eyes imploring him to reconsider. “You promised. I trusted you.”

“That’s just it. You don’t trust me. You never have.” Stepping back, he nodded at the door she’d been in such a hurry to get through only moments ago when she’d been the one calling all the shots. “Goodbye, Willow.”

This time when she opened the door, he didn’t stop her.

This time, like the last time they were in his bedroom all those years ago, he stood, silent and still.

And watched her walk away.

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