Page 140 of When Wrecked Meets Ruined
“Stop lying,” he gritted out.
“It wasn’t your fault. It was my mother’s fault for leaving. It was Wade’s fault for getting involved with that guy. It was my fault for opening the door. It was that asshole’s fault for trying to force himself on me. But I chose to stay. The reasons why don’t matter. It was my choice.”
“Hang on. You opened the door?” he asked incredulously. “He knocked, and you opened the door just like that?”
“I thought it was you.”
Ridge reared back like he’d been struck, and I knew I’d said the wrong thing. I scrambled for something to say that would make this better. “But I should have checked first. Nothing that happened was your fault.” I repeated the words, hoping he'd believe it if I said them enough.
He shook his head and laughed bitterly. “Sure, it wasn’t. Do you know how many times I went over that night in my head? It played on repeat over and over and over, and I couldn’t fucking get it to stop.” He pushed his hand through his mussed-up hair, and he looked so tortured that all I wanted to do was hold him and try to find a way to make it better.
I reached for him, but he backed away and held up his hands to ward me off.
“And tonight… tonight when I saw you, all I could think about was how much you fucked me up. And how, no matter what I did, I couldn’t get you out of my head. You make me fucking crazy, Evie. I drove myself crazy. And I thought that seeing you again would give me all the answers I needed. And then I’d be able to get over you and move on.”
“That’s what you’re trying to do? Get over me and move on?”
“What else is there to do, Evie?” I heard the resignation in his voice and stumbled back a step as the realization hit me.
He wasn’t looking for a second chance. He didn’t want to start over. He was looking for closure because he wanted to move on.
“You’re right,” I said, trying to accept the hard truth. “That’s what we both need to do.”
“Yeah. I guess it is.”
I opened my mouth to say more, but what more could I say?
I brushed past him, scooped up my clothes from the floor, and took them into the bathroom. This time I wasn’t running away. He’d already made it clear that all he wanted was to move on, so my job was to make it easier.
Ridge and I had too much baggage. How could I have ever thought we could make it right?
I got dressed and hung the robe on the back of the door without bothering to look in the mirror. I was scared of what I’d see. A deranged girl with sex hair and smeared lipstick with black mascara tears running down her cheeks.
I grabbed my clutch bag from the chair I’d tossed it on and strode to the door.
“Where the hell are you going?” His hand slammed against the wood to stop me from leaving.
“What are you doing?” He had me caged in his arms, blocking my exit.
“You can’t just walk out on me like this.”
I almost laughed. Was he serious? “You just said—”
“What did I say?”
I wasn’t going to repeat it. “Just move aside. I’m tired, and I want to go back to Quinn’s house.” He didn’t budge. “What are you going to do, Ridge? Use physical force to keep me here?”
When my words registered, he lowered his arms and backed up a few steps. “I’d never lay a hand on you. You know I’d never hurt you.”
I looked at him over my shoulder. A fallen angel with messy hair, the body of a Greek god, and a face that could break hearts with just one look. “Not physically. But we don’t have to beat each other up to make it hurt, do we?”
His eyes lowered to the ground, and he shook his head. “Guess not.” He grabbed his phone from the bedside table when I opened the door and walked out with me. “I’ll walk you down and call you an Uber.”
“I can call my own Uber.”
Ignoring me, he followed me to the lobby and called an Uber. I was proud, but I was also poor and strapped for cash, so I let him do it. I’d splurged on this trip to California, and even though Quinn had tried to pay for my flight and was always trying to pick up the tabs at the restaurants she took me to, I wouldn’t let her.
Now I was second-guessing everything. By the time I finished medical school, I’d have six figures worth of debt to pay off.
