Page 65 of The Seascape Between Us

“I care about him too. I love him. That’s why I’m letting him go.”

“You’re an idiot.”

I sighed and flopped onto Brody’s sofa, suddenly exhausted. Not just tired, but the weariness that settles into your bones and makes basic movements hard. “Thanks.”

“You’re making a huge mistake.” Brody jabbed a finger at me. “Believe me when I tell you this because I almost did the same thing. I could have ruined the best thing to happen to me because I was scared. I get it. You’ve lost a lot of people you love, youknowthat I understand how that feels.”

I nodded. We’d both lost Ryan, his husband and my best friend. But I also knew he’d grown up in foster care without much stability until he’d aged out. Brody had been on his own for years before he met Ryan. I’d lost my mother in my teens. I’d been in my twenties when Ramona had passed away, but she’dbeen gone long before then. He and I had a lot in common when it came to being on our own.

“I’m not afraid of losing him.” I’d let him go, after all. “I don’t want to hold him back.”

Brody looked up at the ceiling as if praying for strength and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Do you remember what you said to me when I was being stupid about Jett?”

I’d said a lot of things. Particularly about him shutting himself off from someone who made him so happy, and I’d told him. Ryan would never have wanted Brody alone forever. He would have wanted him to be happy, and I owed it to my friend to make sure he knew that—I’d owed it to both my friends.

When I didn’t answer, Brody pushed on. “You told me you would riskeverythingfor a second chance. Don’t even pretend you weren’t talking about Grey.”

Shit, Ihadsaid that. Nothing like having your own words come back to bite you in the ass months later. I scrubbed my hands down my face and mumbled, “It’s not the same.”

After all, I wasn’t afraid to risk anything of myself. I’d do anything for Grey—even let him go.

Brody opened his mouth as if he was going to argue more, but I cut him off. “Can I stay here tonight? I just need time to think.”

He let out a slow breath, shoulders sagging in defeat. “Damn, you’re stubborn. You know you always have a place here.”

My throat squeezed tighter, and I nodded because I didn’t trust my voice. I had a place here for now, but without Grey and the hotel, I had no idea where I belonged anymore, and once again, I was on my own.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Grey

Istood frozen, watching Daniel stride quickly out of the hotel room as if someone were chasing him. I should have followed, gone after him and demanded an explanation for what he’d said, but I was too stunned. My feet rooted to the floor while my brain tried to catch up.

Sell it? Sell the hotel?

He couldn’t be serious. The Seascape was the only home he’d ever really had. He’d never let it go, not under normal circumstances at least. I still felt a little queasy when I remembered how I’d threatened to sell the place when I’d first come back to The Square. Given how hard he fought me to keep the hotel going, how could he be willing to let it go now? It was as if all the fight had been drained out of him after the passing storm.

My chest ached at the thought. But as bad as I felt for him, the sight of Daniel turning and walking away without so much as a backward glance hit like a punch to the gut.

He was giving up?Now? After everything we’d put into the hotel? After the hard work and the money and the time, and he was walking away?

My fists clenched at my sides. I wanted to shake him, make him see sense. Hell, all this time, it had been two steps forward and ten steps back with him. We could have a good life together if he would trust me, trust himself.

I sighed. I knew his hesitation wasn’treallyabout not trusting me or even trusting himself. Daniel didn’t trust anything good; He didn’t believe anything good could last. That’s why he’d been so keyed up before coming to the hotel this morning and why he looked so broken when he’d come face-to-face with the damage from the storm.

He’d expected it. That look carved into his expression while we were in the restaurant, then, when we’d opened the door to the room I was standing in now, he’d been devastated but resigned, too. To have come so close to finally making this hotel everything he wanted it to be, only to have it all snatched away by a fluke of nature, nothing he had any real control over, had broken him, and seeing him so wrecked had broken me.

I rubbed my chest where it ached, and felt hollow as if someone had carved it out with an ice cream scoop.

Had I lost Daniel in all of this after finally finding my way back to him after all these years? When he’d walked out of the hotel, had he walked out on me too?

As if on cue, a text from him popped up on my phone.Take my truck to get home. Keys in the visor.

Where the hell were you going?I typed the question into my phone, but wasn’t even surprised when he didn’t respond. Still, a thin fissure of hope lit low inside me. If he didn’t give a shit, he wouldn’t be worried about how I would get home. When I talked to him next though, I was going to tell him exactly what I thought of this bullshit. In the meantime, I had work to do.

I wasn’t giving up, not on Daniel, not on the hotel. Not now. Not ever. He needed a win, and by god, I would burn this world down to give it to him.

I surveyed the mess of the hotel room, all the destruction, and all our hard work washed away. Getting it cleaned up, dried out, and everything replaced in time for the Grand Reopening would be tough, but with enough money and manpower, it could be done.

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