Page 145 of Love Among Vines

“Would you excuse me for a minute?” he said through gritted teeth. He dove out the front door and stood on the front porch, hands shaking.

The door popped open behind him, and Jade stepped out. Fear gripped his heart. He was looking at his future.

He had thought he was in love with Alexa, and her betrayal almost destroyed him. But what he felt for Jade was so much stronger. If she left and the future that he so desperately wanted disappeared, there would be nothing left of him.

“Are you okay? I can’t believe he did that.” She laid a gentle hand on his arm, and he shook it off.

She shrank back like he had screamed at her.

What was he thinking? They were too different. It would never work. She was a city girl who would grow tired of small-town life. Or she’d get sick of his work schedule or his need to control everything. She’d leave him just like Alexa had, and he would be left broken. It wasn’t fair. None of this was fair.

Fear and anger poured out of him like a poison. “Are you kidding me? Of course I’m not okay. I have given everything I have to this place.” He jutted a finger over his shoulder. “Spent years learning how to make wine, trying to make nice with my fucking cheating liar of a brother because it’s what my family wanted. And on the night we were supposed to celebrate this final piece of the dream—her dream—my own brother proposes to my ex-girlfriend in front of me.”

He paced, heels striking the pavement. “She’s going to be in my life forever now. Every holiday, every family gathering. I’m tired of sweeping everything under the rug. I’m tired of trying so hard to take care of everyone else’s dreams and feelings but my own.”

“Does this mean you figured out what your dream is?” she asked gently.

Was she trying to redirect him like a fucking toddler?

“My dream is to be left the fuck alone,” he shouted.

This time, she took a step back. “It’s going to be okay. I’m right here. We can fix this,” she said. Her tone was calm, but color had bloomed in her cheeks.

“Fix it?” He let out a bitter laugh. “How are you going to fix it when you can’t even fix yourself, Jade? Are you going to run them over with your car? Oh, that’s right. You don’t have a driver’s license. You don’t have retirement savings. Not even a steady job. You have nothing.”

Tears shimmered in her eyes. She squeezed them shut and turned away.

Shit. He had gone too far.

She shook her head. “I knew it. Deep down, I knew this is how you felt about me. You looked at me like I was a pet, alittle project for your savior complex.” She opened her eyes and turned to look at him. “I guess you’re right. I have nothing.” She turned on her heel and stormed off across the parking lot, nearly tripping on the hem of her dress.

Regret filled him immediately. Chris fucked with his head and now everything was ruined.

“Jade, wait?—”

“Fuck you.” Her car door slammed, and she fishtailed out of the parking lot.

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

JADE

Tears streamed downJade’s cheeks as she navigated the country roads. Rett’s words had lacerated her straight to the bone. She didn’t even recognize that man on the porch.

She rolled to a stop at an intersection and let out a guttural scream. Back at square one. There wasn’t a future for her here. Not with a man who could speak to her in that way.

There was no choice. She had to go back to New York. Her phone rang, and she whipped it out. Rett. She ignored the call and then blocked his number.

She had put herself and her heart on the line, and it had been returned to her mutilated and dragged through the metaphorical mud.

It wasn’t fucking fair. She had lost her entire family, then Nate, then her basic ability to find any beauty or inspiration in the world around her. Her muse, her financial security, her future. And just when things were starting to look up, the universe pounded her back into the dirt.

As soon as she passed her driver’s license exam on Monday, she was heading back to the city. It was time to build a new life. Without Rett. It had been insane to think that she could make a new beginning here. She didn’t belong here. She didn’t reallybelong anywhere. There were no roots, no family. Nothing to tie her to any one place.

Air whistled in and out of her nose as she took deep, steadying breaths. Penny still needed her. She couldn’t break down completely. She wasn’t entirely alone.

Even though everything had catastrophically fallen apart, things had been worse after Nate left. Something deep within her called out for release. She focused on the feeling as she drove back to Margie’s, hands shaking with adrenaline.

The new canvases she had bought just in case—and also because they were significantly cheaper than the ones she had bought in New York—waited for her in shopping bags just inside the door of the cottage.

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