Page 51 of Even if It Hurts

The weekend had been long and eerily reminiscent of my first few days home.

My parents hadn’t spoken more than a handful of words to me until dinner on Sunday...which had coincidentally been the first I’d seen and heard from Jackson since Friday. The three of them had spoken around me and for me, the way they’d always done, and had been quick to stop my every attempt at arguing against their plans, all while Wren and Aunt Ada had sat nearby, watching the show.

And I’d been eagerly counting down the hours until now.

I hurriedly shoved the rest of what I needed in my purse, my hands nearly shaking from all the excited energy buzzing through my veins at the knowledge that I would be seeing Kaia and Asher soon. With one last glance around my room to make sure I’d grabbed everything, I turned to leave and sucked in a startled breath when I bounced off Jackson.

“Just me,” he said as he steadied me, one of his large hands gently squeezing my arm. “Where you running off to?”

My lips parted only for a stifled breath to leave me as I looked between pale green eyes and the open doorway. The last thing I wanted right then, or ever, was to have this argument again.

“Work,” I finally said and watched as frustration stole across his face.

“Lainey—”

“I never agreed to quit.”

“You’ve made your point,” he ground out. “You wanted to show us you could do something else, and you’ve done that. But you’re needed here—especially today. You’re needed with me.”

“That isn’t what I’m doing,” I began and choked on the rest of my argument when he held a diamond ring between us. “What...”

“I’ve thought of asking you to marry me thousands of times,” he said, his head bobbing unsteadily. “I’ve thought of where and how, and not one of those times did it go like this. But you’re so set on proving something, that I’ll give up every one of those ideas and dreams and do whatever it takes to remind you of your place.”

A sharp, stunned breath fled from me. “My place,” I murmured, blinking slowly as his words slammed into me with startling force. I sluggishly pushed his free arm away when he grabbed for me again. “Myplace?”

“Lainey, that isn’t?—”

“Who are you?” I demanded as I once again dodged his grasping hand. “The Jackson I knew—the Jackson I fell in love with—would’ve never said those words to me.”

“And you?” he shot back. “The Lainey I spent my life loving wouldn’t have lied to me for six years. She wouldn’t haveleft.”

My shoulders sagged and chest caved, but before that familiar shame could overwhelm my shock and pain, I asked, “What happened to you?” I held up a hand before he could respond, my head quickly shaking. “I went to college. I didn’t tell you what I was studying, I know. But people go to college all the time, Jackson. It might change them and their relationships, butit doesn’t turn their boyfriends into someone as unrecognizable as you are now.”

A telling mixture of guilt and worry briefly tore across his features as I spoke. If it hadn’t been for the stalling of my lungs or the suspicion twisting through me, I was sure I would’ve imagined it.

But I couldn’t get over that look or how it reminded me of Wren carefully and intentionally saying,“And maybe he grew apart from you too,”the other night.

“Jackson, do you even love me anymore?”

His expression shifted to incredulous anger in an instant. “You’re asking me...” A harsh breath burst from him and fueled his next shouted words. “Aftereverything, Lainey, you’re gonna ask methat?”

I flinched as the words bounced back at us from the walls of my room and hurriedly staggered back when he took a large step toward me.

“After everything I’ve done for you?” he sneered. “Everything I’ve given up?”

“What have you?—”

“It’s you and me,” he went on as he continued erasing the distance I tried placing between us. “There are plans set in place.Wehad plans. And you need to remember your place.”

A startled sound that bordered on an exasperated laugh burst from me at his use of those words again.

“Here. With me. Combining our companies.” He held the ring in front of me once I was pressed to the wall. “You got your way for six years. Now it’s time to grow up.”

Anger flared in my veins and clashed with the sadness threatening to buckle my knees from the obvious end of our relationship as I studied the man who had been my refuge for so long and was now a total stranger.

“Wanting a different career doesn’t mean I need togrow up.” I tried delivering the words with a hint of the malice he’d said his, but they fell from my lips with a well of sadness. “And even though I’ve wanted and, yes,plannedto marry you for so long, I will never marry anyone who tells me to remember my place.”

Panic replaced his anger, but I was already pushing past him and heading for my door before he had a chance to take back anything he’d said.

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