Page 77 of An Unexpected Everything
“Of course I love you. Or at least I thought I did.”
I was a fucking idiot. Why the hell did I have to keep ruining things? “Bella. I’m sorry, I...”
“No. You can stand there, and you can treat me like shit, but I don’t have to take it. I’m leaving tonight. I have a few things to take care of.”
“Bella.”
“No. I’m so angry right now, I can’t even listen to you.”
And with that, she stormed away, and I realized I had once again made one of the worst mistakes of my life.
I had broken Bella’s heart.
Again.
And this time I’d done it on purpose to save myself.
Like a fucking coward.
I stoodthere for way too long before the sound of approaching footsteps made me whirl. A familiar face nearly calmed my heart, but the relief was short lived. “Hudson. You scared the shit out of me.”
“You’re lucky I don’t beat the shit out of you.” From the glare in his eyes, I had a feeling that mine and Bella’s shouts had echoed over the lake.
“It’s not what you think.”
“What, that my best friend is an idiot who doesn’t realize that if he actually uses his words, he won’t be an asshole?”
“That’s an odd thing for you to say. Since you never speak,” I snapped back.
“No. We’re not going to talk about me. You’re going to go after Bella and you’re going to tell her how you feel. Because if you would have listened to what she said, because the whole fucking lake heard it, you would have heard her saying she needed to fix a few things. Not leave forever.”
I opened my mouth, and then closed it again. She hadn’t said she was leaving forever. I had just steamrolled right over her. Like her father.
“Oh shit.”
“Fucker. You know that she’s been working for Cage Enterprises this whole time, right? And she’s been taking over the parts of the job that I hate. That I’m not even trained to do. Hell, I got a business degree so I could do some of that shit when I lived at the lake, but it’s not my job. Her living here would fix so many things. And maybe if you would just let her speak, you wouldn’t be in this predicament.”
I knew all this. I knew it. But I’d been too scared to see the truth. I’d been ready to tell her I loved her, but was so fucking afraid she wouldn’t love me back that I pushed her away before she could do it first. What the hell was wrong with me? I deserved a punch to the face. Even from my best friend. “I should go after her.”
“No shit. I’m only letting you go with a warning once because if you show up to her with a bloody nose and cut lip because I beat the shit out of you, she will be angry with me. And I don’t know if you heard this, but the Cage women are feisty. They could take any one of us.”
“That’s what I hear. I should go.”
“Off with you. Don’t make me be matchmaker again.”
And with that, I ran toward where Bella had gone. We had walked a couple of miles into the forest from the school. And the path she had taken was in the opposite direction, ironically toward Aston and Blakely’s home. Although most of her stuff was at my place.
And she hadn’t packed that morning. Meaning she didn’t have a plan to fully leave.
What the hell was I thinking?
I kept running, annoyed that I wasn’t in my work boots, since I had dressed for the damn graduation. But Bella had been in nice flats and not hiking boots, so why was she so far ahead of me?
I finally made it to the edge of the clearing where the long winding driveway to Aston’s place was, and saw her standing underneath the sunlight, her face tilted up underneath the fading light. I followed her gaze and realized storm clouds had settled in when I hadn’t been looking. A breeze slid through the trees as the first drops of rain began to fall.
“Perfect,” I growled, knowing the weather suited my mood.
Bella turned to me. “Go away, Weston. I don’t want to talk to you.”
