Page 113 of The Mistakes I've Made
“See?” I said to absolutely no one. “Totally easy.”
Saying it out loud didn’t sound so bad. Of course, I’d been saying it to the very sympathetic air in the hotel lobby for what seemed like days.
Actually, it had been days.
Days of slowly wearing down a circled path around this large space as I tried to figure out what to do.
Should I tell him or just walk away, leaving him completely in the clear?
No ties, no commitment.
No responsibility to either of us.
It didn’t seem fair—to keep it from him—but then again, neither was stealing my hotel. The hotel I was currently trying to vacate. I hadn’t heard from the new owner, but I assumed that was what he wanted—for me to leave.
But the process was moving slower than I’d anticipated. As it turned out, I’d grown quite attached to this dingy old place and the island that surrounded it.
That singular moment in Taylor’s kitchen when everything in my life had suddenly seemed to click into place, continued to haunt me. I felt connected to this island, to Ocracoke, and the people I’d met. As silly as it seemed, when I had stood there that morning, making bacon and frying eggs, I’d felt relief.
I’d been working so hard, chasing a dream I thought I’d wanted for so long.
Prove my worth and show my father I was good enough.
Those were the only goals I had seen.
But what would happen after that? Did I really want to follow in my father’s footsteps? Nonstop travel, endless meetings, no time for anyone?
Was that the life I was hoping for?
Somewhere along the way, as I’d fought for the goals I thought I wanted, I’d actually found the life I was supposed to have.
Right here. With Taylor.
And then it had been ripped right out of my grasp with a single soul-crushing letter.
Now, I had to find a new dream. A new life. Because it wouldn’t be found by taking over my father’s company.
I wouldn’t be that parent.
What kind of parent would Taylor be?
That had yet to be determined.
But, first, I had to tell him.
Just as I was contemplating how I was going to accomplish this, my phone rang. Heart racing, I looked down at the screen, only to discover it was Piper.
“Hey,” I said. “What’s up?”
“You were hoping I was someone else, weren’t you?” she said.
“No,” I said, a definite pout to my voice.
But we both knew I was lying. After my confirmed test the other night, I’d called her back to deliver the news, and we’d had a heart-to-heart, in which I’d confessed the current and very real status of my relationship with Taylor.
It had taken all I had to talk her out of catching the first flight out of Hawaii so she could hunt him down and kill him.
After I’d reminded her that my child would actually need a father, she’d managed to calm down. At least for a while.
