Page 92 of Sunshine with You
My heart thrums in my chest, and I bite my thumbnail, hoping he’ll give me this last request. Love might change things, but it can’t fix the way I feel inside. As selfish as this all feels right now, focusing on myself is long overdue.
The tension in his shoulders slackens as he lowers his head, and his arms hang limply at his sides. Enshrouded in a type of anguish that wrings the breath from my lungs, his eyes meet mine before dropping to the floor. “After the wedding?” he asks dejectedly. “No calls, no lunches—nothing for four weeks? That’s what you want?”
No.But I think it’s what I need. I ignore the wet streaks coursing down my face. “Four weeks.” My voice shakes as the reality of what this all means settles into my stomach like a lead weight. The torment etched on his face hurts more than I could have imagined. This break feels like the worst kind of failure, and I’m not even sure I can hold up my end of the bargain when the timer runs out.
Eyes trained on the floor, he nods slowly, stuffs his hands in his pockets, and shuffles a step back. He’s giving me exactly what I asked for, but my heart breaks anyway.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
HUNTER
Ididn’t even try to sleep after the shitshow in the hallway last night. I took my time walking down to my room, and then rescheduled my morning flight for one in the afternoon. With everything that happened, sitting next to Ashlie on a plane—even for a couple of hours—would feel like feeding myself into a woodchipper one limb at a time.
My plan to call off the bet worked, alright. Worked everything right into the ground under the guise of a “break.”Fuck! I knew she was scared. I should have given her more time to see how right we are together. Should’ve kept my stupid-ass mouth shut and toughed it out until after the bet. But I panicked, hearing Trevor brag about their wedding date, and thought giving her a nudge would get us over that hurdle. Instead, I pushed her over the edge; fucked everything up.And she left.
I grimace as the wordspaceechoes in my head, a speedy corrosion that spreads through my heart like a canker. The thought of being away from her for any amount of time eats at me, but I can’t force this. I can’t persuade her to be with me or convince her she’s perfect as she is. She has to make those decisions herself. Despite how wrong all of this feels, I’m giving her what she asked for. No matter how fast I feel myself sinking into a pit of misery, I can’t be that person who doesn’t listen to what she wants.I just hope she comes back.
Waiting for Willa and Ashlie in the parking garage, I gear myself up for the awkward ride to the airport.I just have to make it twenty minutes. My fingers drum across the steering wheel as my thoughts drift to the bar last night. Everything happened so fast. One minute, Ashlie was looking at me across the doorway, and the next, I had some motherfucker smashed against a table. When he touched her, I saw red. Lost my mind. I didn’t even know it was Chase pulling me off until I was halfway outside.
Grabbing my phone, I recheck the rental car return process. The back hatch of the SUV pops open, and I’m terrified to turn around. I can’t take looking into Ashlie’s eyes right now.
“Hey, Hunter,” Willa says from the back. She hesitates, and I glance at the rearview mirror to see her. “Thanks for getting her the crutches.”
I clear my throat. “Yeah, no problem.” By four in the morning, I was still wired, so I hopped in the rental and found a twenty-four-hour pharmacy to grab crutches and an ankle brace for Ashlie. I left it all at their door, hoping she wouldn’t see it as a breach of “space.”
Willa slides into the passenger seat and places a hand on my arm. “You okay? I heard…everything.”
“Yeah, naw, not really. I, uh… I changed my flight to give her some breathing room… Just don’t want to deal with the awkwardness.”
“Wow, okay… That’s a little extreme, but I guess she asked for it.” She breathes out a quiet laugh and shakes my arm. “Hey, she’ll figure it out, Hunter.”
I nod, but there’s no confidence in it. Even after everything last night, I still don’t know that she wants this with me. A month is enough time for her to change her mind about all of it.
Ashlie clicks out of the hotel on her crutches, swinging methodically toward the rental car. I watch her through the rearview mirror as she pulls herself up and slides her crutches across the seat. Watch her click her seatbelt across her torso. Adjust her ponytail. Swipe a finger under her glossed lip. I watch everything for the last time, fix my eyes on the road, and I don’t look at her again.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
ASHLIE
Despite the ache in my chest, I managed to make it to the weekend without a single tear. Mostly. Wednesday was hard, when I realized it was lunch time and picked my phone up to text Hunter without thinking. Seeing his name on the screen was all it took for me to crumble into a tear-soaked mess.
I miss him. It’s only been a week, and I miss everything—the teasing, the touches, the kissing. His snarky comebacks and smart-ass jokes. Arguing with him about everything…anything. His friendship.Him.But I stand by what I said in that hallway. I need to stop relying on others and work on myself… I’m just not sure how.
I’ve spent the week petrified by indecision, the roar of anxiety growing with every passing day. I’m running out of time, but that deep-seated fear of failure is pressing me into the couch cushion so forcefully right now, I can’t do anything but sit here and flip through channels. It’s already Sunday afternoon. Doing nothing about it feels worse by the day, but I justcan’t.
Loud banging at my door snaps me out of my pity party. I slowly stretch as I stand from the couch, adjusting my tank top and pulling up my sweatpants while trudging to open it. Luckily, the tweak in my ankle was a small one. After babying it for the week, I’m only feeling a slight twinge when I lift my heels to look in the peephole.
Willa storms into my apartment as soon as I open the door, and I shield my eyes from her cheery yellow T-shirt. It’s too bright for my mood. Her long twists sway as she shakes her head at the misery cocoon I set up on the couch. “Alright, girl, get dressed and let’s go.”
“Oh, dear sister. Do come in…” I say dryly, moving back toward the sofa.
Whipping around, her eyes narrow. “This…”—she waves her hand in the air, gesturing to me and then the living room—“is not healthy. I’m getting you out of the house. Go. Get. Dressed.”
“Ugh, no. I don’t feel like going anywhere. Can we just stay in and watch a movie or something?” Resuming my position on the couch, I wrap the blanket around myself, curling in tight like a depressed little taquito.
“No, Ash. You need sun and fresh air.” She grabs my blanket and yanks it clean off my body, scrunching her nose after a few seconds. “And a shower.”
I slice a glare at her. “Remember how we didn’t talk for years? We should make that happen again. Right now.”
