Page 107 of Hang the Moon
What was the big deal with his offering her a solution? “I’m not proposing, Annie.”
What little color remained in her face drained, leaving her pale as a sheet. His grimace was immediate and instinctive, and he tried to quash it. When that didn’t work, he hid it with his hand instead, covering his mouth with his palm. Hewasn’tproposing, but her horrified reaction stung.
“I’m not—Ican’tbe the type of girl who moves across the country on a whim,” she whispered, setting the folder he’d given her aside.
A whim.This didn’t feel like a whim, not to him. His whole life, he’d been waiting for something that felt this right. And now she wanted to walk away.
“I don’t know if I’ve given this enough thought. I need time to think. And I can’t—I can’t do that around you.” She lifted her head and stared up at him, her eyes bloodshot and glossy. “Because when I’m around you, I lose my head.”
“The feeling’s mutual. I told you, I’ve never felt this way about anyone before.”
When he was with Annie, she became the only thing he could think about. The only thing that mattered in those momentswhen it was just the two of them. Only, he didn’t feel like that was wrong.
“And two weeks from now? Am I going to be the girl you’re canceling plans with for someone else you’venever felt this way about?”
Her insinuation—no,accusation—knocked the wind out of him.
He didn’t know how to make her understand that this was different.
It felt like he was fighting a losing battle, showing her he cared without overwhelming her, without moving too fast. With every step he took forward, she took one back. Soon enough, there’d be an entire ocean between them.
“I don’t know how to prove to you I’m serious. I—” He swallowed hard, words clogging in his throat as realization sank in. “If this is about that phone call—”
“It’s not about the phone call.” Her denial came too quickly and was too emphatic to be sincere. She must’ve known it, too, because she shut her eyes and pressed her hand to her forehead, looking chagrined at her outburst. “It’snot. It’s about the fact that I remembered I’ve been here two weeks.Twoweeks. Long enough that your rain check hadn’t even come to fruition.”
He clenched his jaw. “So it is about the phone call.”
A call he had no control over.
“I don’t care about your date—”
“I canceled it,” he reiterated, raking his fingers through his hair and fisting the strands. “Because I haven’t thought about a single person but you since you came to town, Annie.”
Every waking moment, he thought about her. She existed at the forefront of his brain. What she was doing, what was she thinking, if she was thinking about him. With every kiss he fell a little harder, and he wondered if it was the same for her.
It looked like he had his answer.
“Which was two weeks ago.” She hopped off the counter and began to pace across the kitchen, wringing her hands together. “Two weeks.”
“Fifteen days,” he muttered.
She stopped pacing and scoffed. “Jesus Christ, you aresucha smart-ass.”
“You like it,” he said, taking a step toward her and another and another until she was close enough for him to reach out and touch. His hand skimmed her waist, but before he could hold her, she stepped back, slipping through his fingers.
She wasn’t even two feet from him but she might as well have been a million miles away already. He could see her, he was looking right at her, but it felt like he’d already lost her. If she had even been his to begin with.
“I do.” Her bottom lip wobbled and his chest ached. “I like everything about you, Brendon. But...” She pressed her fingers to her lips, staring at the sliver of space between them. “I think we’re moving a little fast. I thinkallof this is moving a little fast.” Tears pooled in her eyes, moisture clumping her lower lashes together. “Alotfast.”
One tear slipped down her cheek when she blinked. Another followed, sluicing the same path, picking up speed. At her jaw, it curved, sliding down her chin. He clenched his hands intofists at his sides, the temptation to erase the evidence of her unhappiness too great.
He wanted tofixthis, but at every turn, his hands were tied.
“Why do I feel like when you get on that plane, I’m not going to see you for eight more years?”
“No.No.That’s not going to happen. I just need—God, this sounds so cliché.” She sniffled hard and gulped in a deeper breath. Her eyes fluttered open, her lashes sticking together, and whatheneeded was for her to finish that sentence. Anything she needed, he’d give it to her. “Time.”
Why couldn’t it have been something simple? A place to stay? He’d make her a million promises, but he couldn’t speed up time and he couldn’t make up her mind for her.
