Page 83 of Summer Fling
"We haven't talked since Ashton called." It felt like an argument. One I wasn't sure we were going to come back from. "But it's for the best. She's going back to her doctorate program and moving on with her life."
Hudson frowned. "Is that what she decided to do?"
"That's what she should do. It makes the most sense."
"What about the interest in her art classes? She's just going to walk away from all that?"
"I don't want to be the one who influences her not to finish school. It's what her parents want too." I was doing the right thing.
"You ever think that she should do what she wants, not what you or her parents desire?"
"That's what I'm doing."
"It doesn't sound like it."
Irritated, I said, "She can't stay because Lilliana or I need her. She has to stay because she wants to."
"Ah. That makes more sense. So you haven't talked to her about how you feel?"
"I don't want to influence her decision to stay or leave."
"You should talk to Marshall. This is what he struggled with last summer when Saylor was going back to her job in Jacksonville. He was afraid to tell her how he felt, so she left. Then he had to run after her and fix it. It worked out for them, but it doesn't mean that you have room to play with."
"She won't talk to me. She's holed up in her room."
He raised a brow. "And you ran here the first chance you got?"
"I wasn't going to stick around the house hoping she wanted to talk. It was driving me crazy."
"Do you want to be happy?" Hudson asked as he placed cheese on half the patties.
"Of course I do. But I can't even think about that until this custody stuff is over with." There was a lot of stress associated with it, and I wasn't sure I could fully focus on Blake with it going on.
"You're putting this situation with Oakley above your relationship with Blake. Is that the right move?"
"How do you figure?" I was tying myself into knots because of what was going on with Blake.
"You left her alone at the house. You didn't talk to her, and the first chance you got, you ran. Now you're planning on doing the mediation without her. You're shutting her out."
"She doesn't want to be involved," I said stubbornly.
"That's not what she said, and you know it."
"She said she didn't feel right about acting like my fake fiancée at the hearing. Therefore, she doesn't want to be there at all."
"You've got all kinds of things linked up that shouldn't be. One does not mean the other, and you might have figured that out if you'd talked to her."
"I'll talk to her tonight."
He crossed his arms over his chest. "What if it's too late? What if she decides that you don't want her here, and she leaves."
Panic clawed at my throat. "She wouldn't leave without telling me."
"How can you be so sure?" Hudson said simply, and suddenly I wasn't feeling confident.
If she didn't feel right being my fake fiancée, maybe she didn't feel good about being my girlfriend anymore either. Maybe my time had run out, and it was too late to fix things.
If she left, I wouldn't be able to follow her. I had the mediation to prepare for, and I couldn't be far from Lilliana. I needed to be nearby in case Oakley couldn't care for her or didn't want to.
