Page 76 of Rock and a Hard Place

She wanted to say yes so badly––it had been a long time since anyone took care of her–but she couldn’t. “This isn’t about money. There are people back in Pebble Creek who moved heaven and earth to help me get here. I would love to go with you, but now they need me to help them. I need to go back with DarLynn.”

Peter shook his head, his eyes glassy with pain.

She squeezed his hand and spoke softly. “You need to go catch your plane and take care of the video.”

“I’ll quit the band,” he declared, and by the look on his face, she didn’t doubt him.

“No, you won’t. You are the most gifted person I’ve ever known. You’re too smart to walk away from your music.” She reached up and smoothed his golden hair.

“We can do this. Give it a chance,” he pleaded.

“I don’t see how? You can’t give up performing and I can’t skip out on school. You’re from out west and I’ll be living on the East Coast. I’m not saying we can’t see each other or stay connected, but I just don’t think anything more is going to work right now.”

Peter released her, rested his arms on the balcony rail, and stared into the distance.

She joined him, taking in the warmth of his skin and the scent of him freshly showered. She missed him already. “These past twenty-four hours have been an amazing dream come true. But it’s time to get back to our lives. I’ve only got a few weeks to wrap up things in Georgia before I leave for school.”

“Peter, I will always love you and now that we’ve found each other, I want to always remain friends.” Reducing what they had to just friends made her want to weep. “But to try to hold a relationship together is too much. When I’m in school, I can’t take off for days at a time. I’d never succeed. And you wouldn’t succeed trying to constantly get away to be with me. Am I making sense?”

“I’m not going to answer that,” he said stubbornly.

She smiled. He got it. He just didn’t want to admit it.

He took her hand and pulled her to him, burying his face in her hair. “Damn it, Libby. I can’t let you go,” he murmured in her ear. “I can’t do it.” His voice broke with emotion.

She tried not to cry. As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t give in, this was too important. “You need to go one direction, and I need to go another,” she whispered.

“I don’t like it.”

“I don’t, either,” she said and meant it. But she’d learned that sometimes hard decisions were required in life. “But we’ll take the love with us. No one can ever take that away.” Her voice broke with emotion.

A knock on the patio door interrupted them. Adam peered out. They released each other. Peter turned away from the door, hiding the anguish on his face. Libby waved Adam over to join them.

“Hey, Adam,” she said softly, her sadness clear.

“Hey.” He took in their tortured expressions. “Sorry to interrupt but, Peter, we gotta go.”

“I’ll be there in a sec,” Peter said, not facing him. Adam quietly left them alone, each in their private pain. Libby fought to keep her composure, but each moment became more difficult.

Peter turned to her with a determined set to his jaw. “I won’t let you do this. I won’t.” He challenged her with a stare. He loved her so much, and she wanted him more than anything. But she knew what they both needed.

“It’ll never work.This will be better in the long run,” she said, wondering if she’d ever recover from the pain of letting him go.

“Stop.” He put his finger on her lips, then leaned forward and replaced them with his lips. His kiss was gentle and soft as if healing a wound. Then he became more urgent as if sending her a message, a promise of something more to come.

She clung to him, wanting to prolong their time together. Tears rolled from her eyes. Peter kissed them away. She fought to hold her emotions in, afraid she would break into a million pieces.

“I want you to call me. Promise?” His eyes were dark and sad in the early evening dusk, as if holding up the weight of the world. When she didn’t answer, he gave her a little shake. “Promise.”

She nodded, but knew it would be easier to let him go now. He didn’t need her as a distraction.

They turned at the sound of Roger opening the patio door. “It’s time,” he said, avoiding eye contact, then departed discreetly, leaving the door open. Peter’s parents and brothers waited inside the suite next to a somber-looking DarLynn.

Libby flung herself into Peter’s arms and hugged him tight, wanting to remember everything about him. “I love you,” she whispered, then released him and turned back to the skyline. “Now go, before I embarrass myself in front of your family.”

“Thisisn’t over,” he murmured in her ear.

She stood for long minutes alone, gulping back her grief, watching the lights of the city pop on as the sun sank behind a mountain in the distance. The sunset created a display of red, orange and pink hues on the evening sky. When Libby turned around, the hotel suite was empty, except for DarLynn packing Libby’s bag.

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