Page 71 of Wolf's Forbidden Curse

I nodded. “In so many words.”

“What? Nic scoffed. “Is she trying to get rid of me? I hope you told her that she has nothing to worry about. I’m not a threat to your relationship or anything. She has to know that.”

“No, it wasn’t—” I sighed. “She isn’t jealous of you or anything like that. But she does think that maybe… that there’s a chance you might…” I rubbed my face in frustration. “God, why is this so fucking hard?”

“Oh. I see. She thinks I’m in love with you.” The way Nic said this, as if it was so obvious, made me realize that I truly had been deeply, unforgivably naive this whole time.

“Yeah.”

“I had a feeling she would see it right away,” Nic said. “From another woman’s perspective, I’m sure it was written all over my face. Honestly, I’m shocked Cornelius or Matt never said anything. I’m fairly certain they know the truth as well.”

“Nic—” I shook my head. “I’m so fucking sorry.”

She laughed. “What are you sorry for?”

“I’m sorry that I didn’t know you felt this way,” I said. “And for anything I might’ve done to lead you on. I’ve been wracking my brain, trying to figure out if there were signs. I would hate to think that I’ve just been so dense this whole time. That must’ve been so frustrating for you.”

“It was at times. But none of this is your fault.”

“How can you say that?”

“Because it’s the truth,” she said. “Really. You never led me on, and I went out of my way to make sure that you never found out about my feelings.”

“You know you could’ve told me.”

“No. I couldn’t have.”

“Why not?”

“A million reasons!” she cried out. Then, she gathered herself and continued, “But mostly, I was too scared of doing anything to ruin our friendship. I thought that if I told you, things would become awkward. I’ve always known you didn’t feel the same way, so there was no way in hell I would let you find out.”

“I still wish you would’ve said something sooner… I could’ve at least been more sensitive when it came to talking about the women I dated.”

She laughed. “Yeah, sometimes those conversations were hard for me to get through. But they were still easier than a conversation in which I revealed my true feelings. You might not be able to tell, but right now, it’s taking all my energy to keep sitting here instead of running out the door and never talking to you again.”

I laughed. “I appreciate the effort you’re making.”

“You should.”

“So, I take it this is why you’ve been so angry with me lately? Because of Daphne?”

She rattled her fingernails against one of the shot glasses. “Yes.”

“But I don’t understand—you never showed this much anger when I slept with other women.”

“Yeah, but that’s because I knew it wasn’t serious with any of them,” she said. “I could tell that they were just flings, ways to distract yourself and have some fun. But with Daphne… Right from the start, I knew things were different with her. It took you no time at all to fall in love with that woman, and that’s what really upset me. I know it’s not fair, but that’s how I felt. I tried to hide it, but there was no use. Still, I’m sorry for being so hard on you the last couple of weeks and for leaving you in the dark. That’s not the kind of friend I want to be.”

“Hey, you’re allowed to be upset,” I said. “You’re allowed to feel everything that you’re feeling right now. You didn’t do anything wrong, and I don’t think you have anything to apologize for. Truly.”

She smiled down into her shot glasses. “I appreciate you saying that.”

“And just for the record, I’m determined to do whatever I can to make sure this doesn’t affect our friendship in any way. I care about you so much, Nic, and I can’t imagine my life without you.”

She nodded, then sniffled and turned her face away as she wiped away a few tears. “I know eventually we’ll be able to figure this all out,” she said. “And who knows? Maybe it’ll be like people say—we’ll end up coming out of this rough patch even stronger. But for right now, I think I need some space.”

I drew back. “Some space from me?”

“From you, from this town. As much as I want to be mature about this whole thing, as much as I want to celebrate your new relationship, everything is still a little too raw. I don’t think I could handle seeing you and Daphne together all the time. Not to mention, I really only stayed in Solara Bay this long because of you.”

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