Page 65 of The Billionaire and the Runaway

There’s silence for a moment and then everyone claps. Kingsley yells, “Ariana, you rock!” There’s some laughing and slowly folks go about their shopping, leaving me standing in front of Eric. He turns off the microphone.

Katia looks between us. “I’m going to check this place out,” she squeaks as she steps away.

I feel like I’m in the eye of the tornado. I only see Eric standing in front of me, everything else is a whirl of activity around us.

“Can we talk?” Eric asks.

“Sure,” I reply. Eric looks me up and down.

“I can walk. I mean, not great, but let’s go to the house,” I suggest.

I watch him tighten his fists by his sides as if he’s restraining himself. He nods and leads the way. We walk inside through the office. Barry is swimming in his bowl on my desk. It’s as if I’ve never left. Everything is just as I had it when I went out that morning. A flurry of gray comes flying toward me.

“Meow! Meow! Meow!”

“Thor!” I yelp as he begins scaling my leg brace.

“Thor!” Eric growls, grabbing him. Thor’s paws try to reach for me, but Eric has him headlocked.

“I can hold him,” I protest as I struggle to hold my crutches while reaching for him.

“When you’re seated,” he answers as he pulls Thor to his chest and starts down the hall to the house.

I sigh, following him into the family room. I sit down and he places Thor in my lap. Thor gives me his “I love you” eyes and curls into a ball, his motor turns up a notch as he settles back to sleep. I stroke his back and side. Then, I peer up at Eric. I hadn’t really taken in his appearance in the barn with all the excitement. He has bags under his eyes. He looks a little thinner. Has he been sleeping?

“You never called,” I whisper as I feel tears well above my lower eyelid. I blink trying to keep them at bay. I don’t want to seem weak. But I have to know why he ghosted me.

Eric takes a big breath and sits down next to me, turning slightly to face me. “Can I tell you a story?”

I frown. “I—I guess so,” I stammer in confusion.

He nods and looks down at his hands in his lap. “I was engaged once. A long time ago,” he begins and then peers up at me. My eyes widen.

“You were?” I ask.

“Yep,” he replies, letting the “p” pop. “Her name was Victoria, Tori, and we were high school sweethearts. After college, we went hiking and backpacking in the mountains. It rained really hard that night. And we camped, waiting it out. But the camp was getting waterlogged. We decided to try to move up the mountain a little, to a safer spot.” He pauses and looks away. “It was stupid. We should have waited three more hours until sunrise. But we were young and…we didn’t think anything bad would happen if we just hiked up a little farther. We packed up and started climbing higher. We had on headlamps, but the storm was low, and we were in the clouds a bit. The path narrowed and I was sure we were at least ten feet from the edge. I was walking in front and…” He pauses as if the memory is still too painful to relive. I’ve not seen him like this. He’s always stoic, strong, protective. But the man in front of me is hurting. I’m still mad at him, but I can’t hold back. My hand darts out and grabs his, squeezing it. We both look at our hands for the longest moment. Then, slowly, he places his other big hand over mine. And just like that, my protector is back. His gaze meets mine. “It was slippery, and she fell forty feet.”

My eyes widen.

“She was so strong. She didn’t die right away. I made it down to her. Her legs were both broken and her wrist and…she’d hit her head. At first, I thought her injuries were just broken bones. But when I pulled up her shirt…she’d broken a rib and it punctured her lung. She was having trouble breathing. I managed to get a cell phone signal and I called for emergency help. We sat there talking until she lost consciousness. They got to us while she was still alive, but barely. She died on the operating table.” He’s quiet for a beat and I think that’s it, but then he speaks again.

“I’m so sorry, Ariana. I never dated again and never wanted to be in love again. I thought I was broken, and I didn’t want to hurt you.” He laughs a bitter laugh. “Kingsley is Tori’s little brother. She made me promise to take care of him. He keeps telling me to get back out there and he was pissed that I left you at the hospital.”

“Why did you? You could have at least said goodbye,” I prompt, my bottom lip trembling.

He frowns and suddenly I feel like there’s a lot more to our story than just what happened between us.

CHAPTERTWENTY-SIX

Eric

“Your father and his girlfriend arrived,” I explain. “He didn’t want me near you, and I was already so in my head about how I was bad for you and that the accident was my fault and I should have protected you. So I left.”

“He’s…not a horrible person. He’s just protective,” she states.

“I know. He’s your father. Being protective is his job. But I should have called. I should have tried. Instead, I came back here, ready to give up and sell the farm,” I admit.

Her hand squeezes mine and her eyes widen. “Don’t do that,” she says.

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