Page 63 of Falling Inn Love
I head inside and start packing. I set my bags in the guest room, planning to make a quick exit in the morning with Logan.
I don’t belong here. I don’t belong anywhere. I need to get back on the move. I will do what Logan wants and take the book deal, but I’ll keep moving. I shouldn’t have tried to stay here, not when I knew it would never work out.
TWENTY-FOUR
EVAN
I won’t chase you.
* * *
My God, all that pain. That’s a lot for someone to carry around. I can understand her hesitation given everything she’s been through, but can’t she see she’s already let me in so much and nothing bad is going to happen? I don’t know how to make her see it any more clearly.
All I know is that it can’t end like this. I didn’t wait twenty-nine years to find my soulmate for her to just leave. She belongs here. I know it and I think she knows it, but she’s terrified.
I badly want to go into the guest room, take her in my arms, and promise to be there for her and try to make her feel better. To let her know that I can’t change the past but I can give her a future.
I run into Mellie outside when I take the puppies out to play. She puts down her laundry basket and hugs me.
“What’s that for?” I ask when she releases me.
She picks up the basket again and says, “You’re a good guy, Evan. Everything you have done for me and Kase? I could never repay you. I am so grateful for you. I don’t tell you enough. I wanted you to know it.”
While I’m happy to hear this from Mellie, the one I want hugging me and thanking me is Beth. I thought after the transplant I could get the inn all set and life would be just great. Now, I don’t even know what I want if I can’t have Beth.
“I’m happy you’re here. You better not be planning on leaving, too,” I say.
Her eyes dart to mine. “She’s really leaving?”
“I think so.” I glance over at my cottage, feeling frustrated and empty.
I’m a Marine. I save people. I’m a helper. I wanted to help Beth, be her protector, and keep her safe here, but I guess you can’t help people who don’t want to be helped. She made it clear that she doesn’t want to be here.
“I really thought she’d stay,” she says.
“I did, too.” I fill the puppies’ water bowls on the porch.
Just then, Logan comes out. “She texted me that we’re leaving. I guess you had the talk?”
“Yeah, that happened.”
“Well, what are you going to do about it?” Logan says.
“WhatcanI do about it? I can’t make her stay. This is her choice.”
Logan blinks at me. “I just want her to be happy.”
“Oh, yeah, and what will make her happy?” I ask, feeling frustrated. “I can give her this,” I say, waving my hand at the inn. “I can love her, give her a family, safety, and security, but apparently that’s not enough.”
Logan looks away. “You don’t get it.”
“Then enlighten me so that I can try to fix this!”
“Give her time. What she just told you? I’ve been waiting six years for that to happen. She has been locked down like Fort Knox. She’s never talked about what that grief has done to her and how it has destroyed her. And she let you in, man. She. Let. You. In. Just remember that. She’s trying to finally heal. And healing is messy. Stay the course. Don’t let her go.” He pushes off the porch and strolls over to my cottage.
I’m so tired. I just want her to stay and fight for me the way I’m fighting for her.
Beth soon joins me on the back porch. Her eyes are puffy, her face red. “I have to go,” she says, not looking at me.
