Page 91 of Even if It Hurts

“Hello to you too,” I said as I met his wary gaze, my voice still a little breathless as my pulse tried to find a steady rhythm again.

Jackson’s eyes shifted from Kaia to the lethal people sitting across from me who looked more like models and narrowed. “You keep showing up with new people and that baby.” He jerked his chin at Hudson and Mallory. “Who are they?”

“Friends,” I said before either of them could answer. “And you’re being rude.”

“Because we need to talk,” he ground out. “I can’t remember the last time you answered your phone, and you keep running away.”

“Take a hint,” Hudson drawled before a grunt wheezed from him.

My lips parted to remind Jackson that we were done and that was it, only to close as I glanced at the people watching me expectantly. “Can you?—”

“No,” Mallory said without remorse as if already knowing what I’d been about to ask.

“Please.”

“We’re fine right here,” she said as she reached for her water, a hissed curse leaving her when Hudson stood and started hauling the Barbie-lookalike off the bench. “Let go,” she snapped, ripping her arm from him.

“You’re adorable,” he muttered and flashed me a grin. “Isn’t she adorable? We’ll go order some food.” With a pointed look at Jackson, he added, “We’ll beright over there.”

“Where did you find these people?” Jackson asked under his breath as he watched them go, Mallory smacking and shoving at Hudson the entire time. His head shook as he dropped to the bench beside me. “It doesn’t matter. We need to talk.”

“So you keep saying, but I already told you, we no longer have any business together. And that’s all I’ve become to you, your parents, and mine these past years: business.”

“That isn’t true.”

“Isn’t it?” I challenged as I gently bounced Kaia on my thigh. “Jackson, you don’twantto marry me. You aren’t even in love with me.”

“How can you?—”

“Stop lying to me,” I softly begged. “Stop lying to yourself. You already know I know about Heather, so juststop.”

His jaw tensed and twitched as he studied me before eventually saying, “Lainey, I need you. Your family needs you.”

A sad laugh bled from my lips. “You aren’t even denying it.”

“Lainey, I love you,” he claimed, the words nearly a growl. “I want to marry you. I’mgoingto marry you.”

Sadness swelled in my chest as I searched those light green eyes I’d memorized throughout my life. “No, you don’t,” I finally said. “And you won’t.”

Fear and anger flared, but before he could respond, I added, “You keep saying you need me—that my family needs me. What’s sad is none of you realize that youdon’t.” I pressed a hand to my chest before curling it around Kaia’s waist again to steady her. “My parents don’t need me to run the farm. It will suffer with me at the head of it because I have never wanted it. Wren wants it. She will do great there if they would just give her a chance.”

“Wren,” he said in the same doubtful, condescending tone as my parents.

“Give her a chance,” I nearly begged. “And our families do not needusto merge the businesses.” An irritated sound rolled up my throat. “Why isour marriagea requirement of the merging? Just tell our parents to merge. Then you can finally be happy with Heather, and I can be?—”

“Don’t finish that,” he said in low warning and leaned close. “Do you realize that this is decades of planning you are trying to destroy?”

“Y’all keep reminding me,” I said softly as that sadness nearly became overwhelming and tears pricked the backs of my eyes. “Do you realize that by trying to adhere to their demands, it’s destroyingyou?”

Jackson’s brow furrowed, making him look even angrier in his confusion and denial.

“You do not want this,” I said with absolute certainty. “If you did, I wouldn’t be talking to a stranger right now. I wouldn’t have watched you grow increasingly angry these past years—and don’t say it’s because I went to school. I know it’s because of whatever was going on with you and Heather.”

“Lainey—”

“You wouldn’t have turned into someone who would get so mad that I wanted to be happy and live my own life that he’d grip me until it felt like my jaw was being crushed,” I seethed under my breath and watched his face fall.

“Stop calling me,” I continued when he just sat there, staring vacantly ahead with a look of horror, remorse, and indecision. “Stop demanding we talk. Stop saying we’re engaged because we aren’t. We’re done, Jackson. We’ve been done. Tell your parents to merge without our marriage and maybe ask why they didn’t just do it a long time ago. And stop hiding Heather—it isn’t fair to her.”

---