Page 99 of Five Alarm Love
“You have a good thing going with your page and all you’re doing to help this community.You’re… you.Open, friendly.I mean, you don’t know a stranger.You’re making a career out of this work.It’s important.”
His voice went still and low.“I don’t like where you’re going with this, Lou.”
Hot, wet tears burned behind her eyelids, and she blinked hard, clenching her jaw until it ached.Once her eyes were dry again, she said, “I need to take a step back and make sure this is what I want.”
“You meanwhoyou want?”
Every second it took for her to answer him took a chunk out of her soul.Finally, she said, “I already worried that you’d be giving up too much to be with me.This might be a sign for us to reassess.”
“You’re breaking my heart, Lou.”His eyes glistened.
She almost crumbled.Almost.She curled her hands into fists, letting the nail tips dig into her palms.Anything to center her pain anywhere else but her heart.“I don’t want to hold you back.With your work or with your future.”
“Oh no, Lou.”His voice was a raw, torn sound.“Please don’t do this.”
She had to.She wouldn’t hold him back or limit his future.His dreams.She couldn’t do that to someone she loved.
Her heart cracked in two as she stared at the gape-mouthed, horrified expression on his handsome face.
She loved Tuli.
Always had.
And now she was going to set him free.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Tuli waved offMav as he staggered out of the ambulance garage, emerging from the darkness and blinking in the bright midday light.
Breathing hard, he bent over like he’d been punched.
He leaned against the corrugated exterior wall of the building.
Breakfast came right up on the asphalt.
He wheezed until his head and stomach calmed down.
He’d had the one thing he always had wanted in his life.Right there, in his hands.
All his.
Now?
Gone.
Fucking Hunter.
He stumbled to his truck, leg buckling under him on the last step, and he gripped the handle to remain upright.
Hunter.Why?
He and Lou were cousins.Family.Blood relatives.
Was the guy somehow jealous that her attention had been focused on Tuli, not Hunter?Still didn’t make sense.
Besides, Tuli had won Lou fair and square.
Actually, she wasn’t a prize to win.She made her own choices, a fact that she had just demonstrated.
