Page 89 of In Good Company

Did he…did he just admit that he’s falling in love with me?

My vision gets even blurrier after his admission. No, he can't be falling for me. Maybe I heard him wrong. I’m stressed and not thinking clearly. It’s got to be that I didn’t hear him right.

“Cal,” I whisper, and it feels like my entire world is closing in on me.

My dad’s in the hospital.

My mom is scared, tired, and shouldn’t have to bear the burden of dealing with this alone.

I’m the one who’s supposed to be there for my parents, and I’m states away, completely helpless.

And now, Cal might be saying things like he’s in love with me, and all that means is I’m going to hurt him when I go back to Virginia—alone.

His posture is stiff, and his face is set in a grimace. “I’ve got a plane. I’ll call my pilot right now, and we’ll be able to fly out in an hour.”

I shake my head. He’s a distraction. Missing all the phone calls from my mom last night is proof of that. If I hadn’t been with him, I would’ve answered the first time my mom called. She wouldn’t have had to worry about why I wasn’t answering on top of dealing with my dad being hospitalized. The last thing I need is for Cal to come back with me.

“I have to go alone. I’ll be there a long time, and you have stuff you have to do here.”

He scoffs. “There’s nothing more important to me than being there for you through this. Let me help.”

Tears freely fall down my face. “I don’t need you to be there for me.”

His head rears back as if I’d slapped him. The hurt is written all over his face as his blue eyes scan my face. “Why do you feel like you have to handle everything on your own?”

FORTY-EIGHT

CAL

I don’t know what a broken heart feels like. I’ve never cared about someone enough to give them the power to break my heart.

But the dull throb beginning in my chest right now has got to be close. It’s all because of the look on Lucy’s face. She doesn’t have to say a word for me to know that this conversation isn’t going to go how I want it to.

I so desperately want to be the person Lucy leans on when she needs help. I want to be there for her like I want my next breath. My entire body aches at the thought of her going back home to deal with things by herself.

I want to be there for the woman I fell for, but it’s becoming more and more clear that as desperately as I want to be the one for Lucy to lean on, that isn’t what she wants.

“For once, just let someone be there for you, baby,” I croak, not caring how vulnerable I sound. This woman owns my heart, and I need her to know and hear in my voice how badly I want to be there for her.

Her lips tremble, and I hate that tears still stream down her face.

I reach out to try and wipe them from her cheeks, but she shies away from my touch.

And that one simple movement obliterates my heart.

Her entire body shakes as she aims her gaze to the ground. “I’m the only person my parents have, Cal. I have to be there for them, and I don’t need you there to distract me.”

My mouth snaps shut so quickly I wonder if she hears the impact of my teeth slamming together. I rub at my chest, a pain radiating through me from her words. “Is that what I am to you? A distraction?”

She kills me with one simple nod of her head.

Blood drains from my face as I slowly nod. All this time, I’ve been envisioning what a life with her could look like. Every time she’s opened her mouth, I’ve waited with bated breath, hoping this would be the time she’d open up to me. I was hoping for a future with her, and to her, all I am is adistraction?

Her eyes meet mine, and I can see that she’s put her walls back in place. It’s been so long since I’ve seen them like this. She’s staring at me blankly like she did that night at Laurent’s when she pretended not to know me.

“Maybe it’s best we end this now, anyway, before things get carried away,” she whispers. “We were only supposed to be temporary. With you being Oliver’s brother and me having to leave, this is what’s best.”

My jaw tightens. I hate that she even brought up Oliver as if he is any kind of reason we can’t be together. The only person preventing me and Lucy from being together is her.

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