Page 43 of Always Mine

And that was how it was going to stay.

****

Daisy was tired oflooking at the beach.If she let go of the railing that kept her grounded, she fell into another memory, or something else—a nightmare.She didn’t want to keep going down memory lane.

Gritting her teeth, she wanted to growl and cry.Why was she stuck here?What did she have to do to get back?She was tired of the view.She hated it.There was a time she would have gladly given anything to go to the beach.Now, she was getting tired of being here, waiting.That light in front of her was scaring her a lot more than she wanted to admit.

She wanted to get back to the hospital to see Anthony.She missed him so much, and it was then she had to accept what was going on.She was dying, or maybe right now she was stuck in this world, at a point where she couldn’t move forward.

Tears filled her eyes.All she wanted to do was go home, hold onto Anthony, and never let him go.She took a deep breath and wondered what she had to do to get home, to hold the people she loved.

****

Miles stepped intothe room and came to a stop when he saw Constance sitting close to the bed.He had not been alone with this woman since high school.He turned on his heel, hoping to leave before she noticed he was even there.

“Don’t go,” Constance said.

He gritted his teeth.Damn it.Ignoring her was a lot easier when she wasn’t around.Right now, he couldn’t ignore her and instead turned toward her.

“Where has everyone else gone?”Ever since she came back to Fort Wills, he’d been able to avoid talking to her.He’d been able to avoid a lot of other stuff as well.

“They had to go.Stuff needed to be done.I said I would sit with her.Daisy doesn’t deserve to be alone.”She leaned forward and reached out to take Daisy’s hand.“She shouldn’t have gotten hurt.”

“I know,” Miles said.

“Where did we go wrong?”

Miles shrugged.“Bad shit happens.”

Constance laughed.“Do I make you that uncomfortable?”

This made him tense.Constance didn’t make him uncomfortable.That would be his feelings he had for this woman.They had been there in high school, no matter what he did to ignore them.They were still there now, and it terrified the fucking life out of him.

“Uh, no,” he said.

Constance looked toward him and laughed.“Seriously, after all this time.”She shook her head.“I had to wonder what I had done to you.”

“You haven’t done anything to me.”

“Are you sure about that, because, you see, I went looking at that special grant I apparently earned, and it didn’t come from any reliable source.It was a one-time donor, and it came from you.”Constance shrugged.

He stared at her and then gritted his teeth.“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You’re kidding right now.”Constance laughed.“You’re going to stand there and lie.I was able to find out where it came from.You paid to get me the hell out of town.Did you hate me that much?”

This was not going the way he hoped.The point of providing those funds was easy, to give Constance the life experiences she deserved.He knew there was a chance she would never return to Fort Wills, but he had always lived in hope that she would.His dreams had come true when he saw her around town.

However, when he first found the money nearly six years ago, and he did so through his grandfather and his own personal funds, he had expected a different outcome.He had hoped to have gotten closer to Constance.

He loved this woman.It scared him how deeply he felt for her.And he knew it wasn’t going to be easy for her to love him as well.

“I don’t hate you,” Miles said.

This made her laugh.“You’re joking, right?”

He glanced toward the bed, hoping Daisy would choose this time to wake up and distance this woman from whatever warpath she was on, but of course, Daisy was still asleep.Great, this was Karma coming to bite him in the ass.

“I didn’t do it to get you out of town.Not in that sense,” he said.He blew out a breath.“I knew how fucked up your family was, and you wanted to go to college.”He had seen how sad she had looked when applications had been discussed.He overheard a conversation she had with one of the guidance counselors.He’d been sneaking around the fucking office, and hid while Constance was at her interview.He wanted to see what was going on with the Monster Dogs’ kids, and he didn’t tell anyone about it, as he knew the guys would either want in or tell him no.

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