Page 35 of A Miracle for the Confident Cowboy

“This is your dream.” He finally voiced the words that had been creeping around in his mind. “Doing a tour like this will put you on the map. You’re not going to walk away.”

Her eyes glimmered with moisture. “But?—”

Duke heaved a heavy sigh and dragged a hand down his face. “I’m not going to be the reason you miss out on something like this.” As much as it hurt to say the next thing that came to his mind, he forced it out. “What we have isn’t worth what you’d be losing.” It felt like he’d stabbed himself in the heart with that one, because that was the furthest thing from the truth there was. He cared for her so deeply that he would have done nearly anything to keep her, but this was for her own good. She needed it and he wasn’t going to stand in her way. “You should go.”

“But what about us?” She stammered. “I—we—” Her face flushed and she covered it with her hands before staring daggers at him. “I want to try.”

Those words broke his heart in more ways than he was prepared for. “No,” he said gently. “It’s good for us to break things off now, rather than to drag it out until one of us gets hurt.” Or until one of them gets more hurt than they already were. “You want this.” He said it more to convince himself than anything else. “You need it.”

He got to his feet and she followed his motions, the dog placed carefully on the couch. Duke’s eyes swept over her face, her form, memorizing every detail of her. He kept his face masked and his voice steady. He didn’t need to give her any reason not to believe him when he said, “It’s been fun, but that’s all it was. Fun.”

Sophie blinked several times but whether it was out of disappointment or surprise he would never know.

Smiling once again, though it didn’t reach his eyes, Duke pulled her in for a quick, chaste hug. Strong emotions swirled and battled in his chest, demanding to be set free, insisting that he tell her he loved her.

But she didn’t need any reason to regret or second guess the decision she’d already made all on her own. Duke pulled back and glanced once more at the papers on the table then he turned his attention to her one last time. “It’s been a pleasure, Sophie. Congratulations.”

With that, he launched forward and strode toward the door. No lingering. One minute longer and he might have taken back everything he’d said. This was the right decision whether she liked it or not. One day she’d thank him for what he’d done.

Duke pulled the door open then escaped. Outside, a cold, brisk wind picked up and tugged at his hat. He placed a hand on his head and strode through the gusts until he got to his truck. Once inside, he let the emotion drain from him.

Anger. Sadness. Frustration. Loss.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Sophie staredat the closed door with shock. That wasn’t how she’d wanted any of this to go, nor could she have predicted any of it. Duke hadn’t been angry. He hadn’t been sad. He hadn’t been desperate to make her stay, for heaven’s sake.

Nothing.

He’d shared absolutely nothing with her.

She might even be able to make the argument that he didn’t even want her anymore.

That hurt more than she wanted to admit.

It had been excruciating to watch him—the lack of emotions that had played out on his face, the way he’d insisted that she go and that they wouldn’t be able to continue the relationship they’d started.

Embarrassment stung her cheeks even though she was alone in her apartment with no one to notice. He’d told her to leave. He’d told her he was proud of her. But he hadn’t told her that he loved her.

It wouldn’t have mattered. That’s what she told herself when the room had gone quiet again. If he’d told her he had deeper feelings for her and that he wanted her to stay, she wouldn’t have.

Would she?

Sophie shook her head and moved to the front window of her apartment. She couldn’t see much of the small town from her window, but there was an assortment of twinkling Christmas lights scattered in the darkness. She wrapped her arms around herself and let out a long, heavy breath but it did nothing to ease the realization that she’d just been dumped.

Never in her life had she truly understood what it meant to feel hollow inside—until now. And she hated it. She hated this feeling of helplessness—like she’d lost something valuable even though it had never belonged to her in the first place.

A tear dragged down her cheek and she swiped it away with rough fingertips. She wasn’t going to cry over him. It was like he’d said. Their relationship was too new to put so much pressure on it. He’d also been two hundred percent correct when he’d said this just happened to take place at the worst time.

If she’d been offered this gig a year from now—heck, if she’d been offered it six months from now—things might have been different.

Sophie shook her head to clear it. Christmas was going to be in a few days and then she’d leave. She needed to take a bunch of stuff back to her parents’ house so she could prepare for living abroad for who knew how long.

She marched into her bedroom and started pulling things from her closet before tossing them on the bed. The more she tore things from their hiding places, the angrier she got.

Duke didn’t eventryto fight for her!

So much for the connection they’d had. So much for the quiet moments where they’d shared parts of themselves they hadn’t shared with anyone else. She huffed as she retreated to her room. Maybe he was right. This was for the best. She was going to head over seas and she wasn’t going to be coming home any time soon. To try to get close to him when they could see each other in person was hard enough as it was. But to try to claw at a relationship he assumed was doomed to fail would be impossible.

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