Page 93 of Forgot to Tell You Something

My God, my heart hurts.

Owen grabs me around the waist as I reach for the front door, pulling me against him. Wrong move. I’m in no mood for coddling, and certainly not by him. I push at his hands, locked around me, squirming like an insane patient.

“Let me go,” I wail, feeling his grip tighten around me.

Owen buries his head in the crook of my neck, as I desperately try to shirk his touch. “Please, Tally. You don’t know—”

“You’re right. I don’t anything about you. But I don’t have the energy to wade through your menagerie of stories, searching for the pearl of truth in your lies. My father is sick, and I need to focus my energy on him.”

“Did something happen with your Dad?”

I whirl in his arms, my eyes flashing with fury. “He had a rough night. I was going to call you to come with me, but I didn’t want to disturb yourbusinesslunch.”

“Tally, you should have called me. I’m always here for you.”

It’s bizarre when the emotions become so overwhelming that you shut down, and a strange, detached sense of calm drifts over you like a wet blanket. You know you’re suffocating, but you cease to care.

“That’s just another line, isn’t it? You’re never here for me. Hell, today, you were busy tending to the needs of the fiancée I didn’t know you had.”

“Ex-fiancée, Tally.”

“That’s not what she said.”

He grunts, shaking his head. “Fucking bitch. She’s a liar.”

“So are you.” I push out of his grasp, standing there with defiant rage.

Owen smacks the door frame, his aggravation mounting.

About time you join the club, asshole.

“I’m not lying! Charlotte is not my fiancée. Not anymore.”

“That’s temporary, I’m sure. A business lunch. What a crock. Let’s just call it what it is—she wants you back, and she doesn’t seem like a woman who takes no for an answer. Nice outfit she had on, probably worth more than my entire apartment. Who says money can’t buy love?”

“I walked away from her. I left San Francisco because I was miserable.”

“Not so miserable that you would refuse lunch with her. If it was really over, you wouldn’t have seen her.”

“It’s about the robotics cath lab. That’s it.”

“Sure it is, Owen. Have you meantanythingyou’ve ever said to me?”

“I meanteverything, Tally.”

I stamp my foot, releasing a howl of rage. To the outsider, I look like a crazy person, but Owen should thank his lucky stars. I’m holding back. “What is it about me that is so unapproachable you have to lie repeatedly?”

“That statement is so unfair.”

“That statement is dead-on balls accurate. I asked you why you left San Francisco, and you made up some bullshit answer that you were searching for your why. Your reason for everything.”

“I was, Tally. And I found it when I met you. Believe me.”

“You lied about being a doctor, even after I asked. You lied about your reasons for moving to Florida. You neglected to mention Charlotte, or your impending wedding. Why, for one second, should I believe anything else that you’ve said?”

“It’s the truth.” Owen takes a step toward me, but I sidestep him, shooting him a warning look to not come any closer. “Christ, I know how bad this looks, and I wanted to tell you everything, right from the beginning. But I figured if I told you I’d just broken off an engagement, and that I was in the one profession you won’t date, that you’d run screaming in the opposite direction.”

“You never gave me a chance. And now, I won’t give you another one. We have to work together, but beyond that, I don’t want to speak to you again.”

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