Page 90 of The Best Book Boyfriend
“Look at you. You’re all tense, your voice is sad, you look like you’re going to cry. I don’t know why you’ve invited him in.”
I don’t know either. “It’s complicated.”
“Kara, listen,” he swallows thickly. “I came here to talk aboutus. And nothing about us is complicated. Being around you is the most natural, uncomplicated thing. My wife dying is complicated. Moving somewhere new and building a new life is complicated. Starting a business on your own is complicated. Sorry, I know you know that one—”
“Shut up. I can’t think.”Us. Us.“You’ve said complicated so many times now it doesn’t feel like an actual word. Complicated.Com.plic.a.ted.What are you really saying?”
“Look, there’s a lot I want to say to you, but not while your ex is making himself at home again.”
“What do you mean?”
He lets out a long, slow breath and rolls his lips between his teeth. “I just want you to know that if you think you have to choose, choose uncomplicated.”
My jaw is on the floor, my eyes searching his, when I hear Adam call from just beyond the door.
“Babe?”
I turn towards his voice. “Yeah?” I sound different. This silly voice I used to use with him is not my own.
“You coming in? You’re letting all the heat out.” I’d forgotten his stupid obsession with the heating. It’s not even fucking on.
I roll my eyes and turn back to tell Luke I don’t want him to leave, but he’s already pulling his car door closed and turning on the engine.
Chapter 37
Luke
Thiscan’tbehappening.This can’t be happening.
I don’t know what to do. How can I have been so close to telling her how I feel, to asking her to give me a chance, and then that dickhead rocks up assuming he can just walk back into her life. Surely she can’t still feel the same way about him.
I shouldn’t have left. I should have stayed, walked in with her, told him to get fucked, but this is Kara. She’s strong willed, even if she doesn’t think so, and she needs to make her own decisions. She needs to want this as much as I do. And I want it so damn much.
I try to keep myself busy. Cleaning the kitchen, plumping the sofa cushions, dusting my bookcase. Anything to distract myself from the twisted knot in my stomach. The thought of her alone with him, talking things through, making up, getting back together again, kissing. Fuck, it’s torture. I might actually be sick.
She can’t take him back, she just can’t. Not after the way he treated her, the way she’s had to pick up her life without him. She’s doing so good, she said it herself. I have to do something.
Think Luke, fucking think!
What would a Book Boyfriend do?
Flowers, chocolates, gifts, they’re not enough to convey how I feel.
A billionaire romance hero would send a car, take her to a private jet, whisk her away to some fancy dinner for two on a tiny island where he confesses his love.
Aiden inGot Wood?would just turn up, knock the door down and haul her into his arms and off to his bed.
One of those Ice Hockey bros she’s got it bad for would win a game and get down on one knee in the middle of the ice for her. I’ve never skated in my life. How quickly can I learn?
I need a big, bold gesture, and fast. Can I buy her a wall, a cabin by a lake, an art studio? No, these things wouldn’t mean anything to her.
I can’t rope in her friends. No more meddling, she was clear about that.
I look at my bookshelf, the row of novels that have stacked up in the weeks since I’ve known her. She loves these books. She loves these men. She loves their spice, but more than anything she loves it when they have a way with words.
I pick up a pen and paper and start writing.
Chapter 38
