Page 112 of Can't Get Enough

The quiet assurance of my response sits between us for extended seconds, and I’m not sure where to go next. I just want to be done with the conversation. She wants me to feel like I’ve done something wrong, and I know I haven’t. As much as I want to spare Zere’s feelings in this, I won’t say that.

“I don’t know if I can work with her after this,” Zere goes on. “Have you considered what this decision might cost her?”

“If you decide not to move forward with Hendrix as a business partner, that’s understandable. I think she was prepared for that possibility.”And she still chose me, which I’ll never forget or take for granted.“That is your right. You should feel comfortable with your business associates.”

“You don’t care about what she’s giving up?” Zere asks bitterly. “What will you offer Hendrix when the novelty wears off?”

“What if it never does?”

“You don’t… You can’t be saying you love her.”

“I’m saying she’s special to me. We’re aligned in some very fundamental ways.”

“You mean that she doesn’t want kids?” Sobs leak through her wall of indignation. “I’m being punished for wanting to be a mother?”

“You’d punish me for not wanting to be a father again? And should Hendrix be punished fornotwanting kids? Most men want children, but I have Tamia. I don’t need that from Hendrix. It’s just another way she and I make sense.”

“And you and I don’t?”

“Not anymore, no, but while we did, I loved you, Zere. I want you to believe that. Every love isn’t forever. We can love people along the way. Relationships can begin and then end.”

“And when do you think your relationship with Hendrix will end?”

I hope it won’t.

It’s not anything I would say to Zere. I wouldn’t even say it to Hendrix in case I scare her off this early in the game, but I have a visceral response to the idea of being with Hendrix forever.

“The longer we talk, the clearer it becomes that you didn’t actually know me, Zee, and that we would never have worked in the long run. That has nothing to do with Hendrix and everything to do with the fact that you and I are incompatible in a way that is more fundamental than I realized.”

“So that’s it? You just discard me and on to the next one?”

“I wish you the best, Zere.”

“You were the best,” she whispers. “You were the best for me and the fact that you’ve already moved on and given that to someone else breaks my heart.”

“I’m sorry.”

“That’s not nearly enough.”

I don’t know what would be, so I say the only thing I can.

“Goodbye, Zee.”

CHAPTER 35

HENDRIX

It’s disorienting to wake up to the whisper of waves, but it’s a sound I could get used to.

I stretch my arm across what feels like acres of mattress to caress the empty spot where Maverick lay beside me.

“This bed.” I scissor my bare legs over the sheets that probably cost as much as my rent, supple cotton and sinful sateen. “I could get used to it.”

I only have a week before I head to Mama’s, but I plan to make the most of it and enjoy every moment. The way Maverick talked about his “place in Malibu” I envisioned a pretty house by the ocean, not this gated coastal estate perched on a three-acre stretch of sand that kisses the Pacific.

I could just live in this bedroom. It’s massive with a California king, sitting room situated by a two-sided fireplace, and a balcony overseeing the ocean. I would gladly stay here all day, but unfortunately my video call in a couple of hours sets a different agenda.

“Get your ass up,” I grumble into the pillow of my dreams.

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