Page 2 of Inked Craving

“Babe.”

“Please don’t call me babe.” I’d never hated it before, but I didn’t like it then.

“Paige. This is a great opportunity. Once in a lifetime.”

“I thoughtwewere once in a lifetime.”

He grimaced. “Paige, baby. It’s a huge chance—my big break. I mean… I guess you can come with me.”

Heguessed. As in, he wasn’t sure. As in, I wasn’t at the forefront of his mind.

“My entire family is here, Colton. My job. My life. I can’t just move to New York and start another Montgomery Builders. That’s not how this works.”

He ran his hand through his hair. “Shit. I didn’t think you’d react like this.”

“How am I supposed to react, Colton? I thought you were going to fucking propose, and now you’re saying you’re moving across the country and didn’t think about what would happen to me when you did?” I hadn’t meant to let all of those words out, and now there was no way to take them back.

Colton blanched. “Paige…it’s not that I don’t like you. I do.”

I held up my hand before he could break my heart any more than he had. “Don’t. Don’t placate me. Clearly, we were looking at this relationship from very different places. I—I can’t look at you right now.” I didn’t want him to see me break.

“I need to head back, Paige. I can’t let them do this without me. We’ll talk later. I promise. We’ll figure something out.”

I met his gaze, grateful that my eyes were dry. “No, don’t. It’s fine. Go. Just go.”

Then he did the only thing he could do, the only thing that broke me. He left. And he didn’t look back.

I stood on our spot, grateful for the privacy, but I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think.

I’d thought I’d found my happiness. I thought I was ready for my future.

It turned out I was once again the baby Montgomery with her head in the clouds and stars in her eyes. Colton didn’t love me. Colton wasn’t my forever. And somehow, I was supposed to walk away from here as if nothing had happened.

My body began to shake, and I pulled out my phone, knowing I needed someone. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t drive. I needed help.

Only I didn’t want to put that on their shoulders. I didn’t want to bother them and have them worry about little Paige again. That’s all they’d done my entire life.

I rolled my shoulders back and made my way to my car. I’d deal with this alone—just like I should have done in the beginning.

I’d put my faith in the wrong man, and I promised myself I’d never do it again.

The Montgomerys fell hard, and now it seemed they broke even harder.

I’d fallen once, and I vowed to myself even as I fought through the pain, I’d never do it again.

I’d never fall in love with anyone ever again.

No matter what fate tossed my way.

ChapterOne

Paige

There were times in my life when I was ready for anything. When I could look at the world in front of me and know that I could handle it. It was what I did. If something went wrong when it came to my business, family, or life, I found a way to make it work. I made it happen.

If I made a mistake, I handled that, too. If I had my heart broken over and over again until I was nothing, I found a way to take it and grow from it.

I could not weather this.

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