Page 61 of A Game of Ruck
I blink.“Then why didn’t you tell me the truth?”
“I don’t know.I didn’t think about it.About him.I just wanted you.But I know from experience that the moment I say Anthony Moretti is my father it changes things,” he admits.“I guess I was right.”
God help me, I want to believe him.
But I’ve been used before.
I’ve been made to feel like the consolation prize, the fat girl with the rich dad, the pawn.
And if I let myself fall again, what happens when he decides I was just a means to an end?
I turn away, but not before I whisper, “I need some air.”
And behind me, I hear him say, “I’ll wait.However long it takes.”
But I’m already walking away, closing doors and steeling my heart against him.Because I know what happens next.
My heart gets thrown in the dirt, that’s what.
I might have been stupid for wanting a fake date to act as a buffer to deal with my cousins and this awful wedding trip.
But I’m not stupid enough to believe in happy endings for someone like me.Not with someone like him.
So, as I round the corner and head to the ladies’ room, I do the only thing I can think of.
I text my father first, then I call the private airport and tell them to fuel up my jet.
Chapter Fifteen-Luca
When I toldAnnabeth I’d wait however long it takes, I meant it.
I still mean it.
But I didn’t take her for a runner.
Now here I am—packing up the last of my shit from the suite we shared, every movement slow and deliberate, like I’m mourning a death.
Because maybe I am.
The death of the only good thing I’ve ever had.
The only woman I’ve ever loved.
And yeah, that’s a lot to admit, even to myself.
But it's the goddamn truth.
All it took was one woman and seventy-two hours to completely turn my world upside down.
Fuck.Shit.
I zip the suitcase closed, then just stand there like an idiot in the middle of a room that still smells like her—cinnamon and coconut and sunshine—and wonder how the hell I let this happen.
How I let her slip away.
The knock on the door nearly sends me flying.
“Annabeth?”
