Page 93 of Good Girls Don't Kiss and Tell

“No, no! You do not get to do that! I may have been a bitch in the past, and I have made a lot of mistakes, but you weren’t this innocent guy who kept handing me his heart and getting rejected. You were anass!There were times you were so rude to me that I wanted to smack that smug look off your face. And you expected me to trust you after that? Well, guess what? I did trust you, and what do I get for it? Standing on a New York City sidewalk, screaming at you and crying because I feel like I’ve lost my best friend.”

She could feel her nose running, but she didn’t have any tissue. Her eyes were probably black with mascara tracks, but she was beyond caring. She had to get this out. Needed to.

“Over the last month, I’ve seen a side of you that empathizes, that can be there for other people because you’re just a good guy. I regretted hurting that man, the one who took care of me when I was sick and held me when I cried and who I thought…who I imagined more with. But after reading what you wrote, I have no idea who you are. Are you the asshole or the nice guy?”

He reached out to her, and she stepped back. “No. Not this time. You don’t get to make me cry and then make me feel better again. You called me, or I’m sorry, ‘Suzie,’ a cold woman who kept men at a distance.”

“It wasn’t you, it was just a character,” he growled, his frustration clear.

“The point is, I let my guard down with you, for the first time, and I should have known better.”

She turned her back on him and waved at another taxi coming down the street, only to be spun around. His hands held her shoulders firmly as he bent over her.

“I’m sorry, Gracie. I didn’t mean to hurt you in any way. I had so many feelings inside me, and I needed somewhere to put them. I swear, the character wasn’t you, but maybe you’re right. All the frustration and resentment was about you and how I felt. But this last month, I’ve seen you in a new light too, you know? I started to think that all the misconceptions and misunderstandings were a thing of the past and we were finally getting somewhere good.”

He let her go so fast, she nearly stumbled. “But at the first perceived infraction, you blow up and cause a scene. Then you run. Because that’s what you’re good at, right? You said so yourself. Love them and leave them.”

He took another step back, and she felt the distance between them like miles of bad road.

“When you come down from this and look at it from my side, I hope you realize that I’ve been honest. And that although I’ve made mistakes, this wasn’t a deal breaker.”

He put his hand on the door and gave her one last long look.

“Because I love you, Gracie Louise McAllister. Always have. Always will.”

She didn’t even hear the cab pull up behind her until he honked, she was so busy staring into the building as he disappeared. When the cabbie honked again, she climbed into the backseat, getting angrier by the minute.

How dare he drop the L bomb in the middle of a fight! Of all the conniving, sneaky, underhanded—

“Where to, miss?” the cabbie asked.

Gracie told him the hotel’s name, but when Eric got in, she wouldn’t be there. She needed to think.

Which was something she couldn’t do when a part of her wanted to forget this night had ever happened and go back to this morning, when she was sure she was in love with him.

Chapter Thirty-One

“Losing someone you love can cause you to take a hard look at yourself and your choices. Hopefully, you like what you see.”- Miss Know-It-All’s Gossip Column.

Gracie stepped off the plane first, and Eric watched the way she quickly marched away from him once they hit the pavement. Eric almost reminded her that they had ridden together, but decided it was better just to keep his mouth shut.

She’d slept somewhere else last night, and he’d actually been surprised to see her for the flight home this morning. When he mentioned this, she’d just put in here earbuds and said,“I couldn’t get a flight home last night.”

He turned on his cell phone as they waited for their luggage. Her sparkly pink case came out first, and she was out the door before him.

He clenched his jaw, wishing she could see that although there was some truth to his book, it was fiction. It was a fun way to vent his frustrations at the world around him and entertain people. What the hell was wrong with that?

Eric walked outside to find Gracie waiting on the curb. His phone went off with a thousand notifications, and he pulled it out of his pocket as he stopped next to her.

“The car is that way,” he said, pointing.

“I’m waiting for Mike to pick me up.”

Of course she had called her knight in shining armor. He tapped on his voice mail, and the first message made him stumble as he stepped off the curb.

“Gee, you walk much?”

He ignored the jibe and turned around with his phone still in hand.

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