Page 75 of Bossing My Holiday
He’s not smiling, though.
“I’m going to be moving to Paris,” he says, and it’s as if the wind is knocked from my sails. Braxton wasn’t expecting this either.
“What the fuck?” he booms, and Tristan glances around, suddenly remembering that we’re in the hall, and drags us down to his apartment.
The door slams shut, and Braxton starts to pace. I’m not big on pacing, so I go over to the sofa and sit calmly on it, only to remember the three of us in here last night and stare down at the thing like it’s stabbing me with needles.
“Don’t act surprised,” Tristan says in a calm voice to Braxton. “You heard my father, and you knew this was coming. Hell, we had even talked about it briefly when we started to look at Smithfield.”
Brax shakes his head, his hands on his hips. “That was months ago. That was before.”
“Yes, before. Before my father told me he wants to retire. Before we acquired a French company. Before the weight and responsibility of my family, of being a Ouest, came down on me.”
“So everything we’ve built this week?” Braxton asks, stopping to search his best friend’s face.
Tristan throws his hands up. “What do you want me to say? I’ve loved every second of this week. But there isn’t a reality where two men can share one woman in the light of day. Think of what that would do to our company, our credibility. Think of what that would do to the Ouest name.”
“I don’t give a fuck what people think of me,” Brax states. “I never have.”
“Because you don’t have anyone to answer to but yourself.”
The accusation is a direct hit, but it’s also a truth neither of us can deny.
Tristan blows out a breath and scrubs his hands up and down his face. “I’m sorry.” Another breath. “I don’t have a choice, Brax. This is what my family does. It’s who we are.”
“So you just bow out?”
“I’ll still come to Boston whenever I can. I’m not leaving OuestHicks. I’ll simply run the Parisian operation.”
“But you are leaving us,” I say softly, looking at him, so I make sure I have this correct.
“You have Braxton. You don’t need me,” he says, though his eyes flicker with pain as he says that. “You never liked me much anyway, remember? You hated me.”
My throat tightens, making it hard to breathe as tears curlalong my lower lids. I haven’t cried in a million years. Not since I was a kid. Not even when I put Nana in a home because I knew if I broke then, I’d never come back from it. But the thought of losing Tristan hurts in an unfamiliar and unexpected way, and my emotions are catching me by surprise.
“Actually, I was falling in love with you.”
Agony rips across his face, and he stares at me for a very long moment before he looks down at the floor, breathing heavily.
“You want to give that up?” Braxton asks. “You want to tell her that you haven’t been in love with her for two fucking years?”
“I don’t have a choice,” he whispers, his voice breaking on the end. “Why do you think I was the way I was? I knew if I let her in, it would eventually ruin me and hurt her because it was always going to get to this point. I was always going to be here. Always.”
“Bullshit.”
“I have to be Tristan Ouest!” he yells. “I have to marry and create heirs and be the face of two companies. That’s how this goes. I don’t get to have the happily ever after with the girl of my dreams. But you can.” His eyes pin Braxton. “That’s my Christmas gift to you both. Each other. Love each other. Have everything you’re both meant to have.” He chuckles ruefully. “Who knows? Maybe whenever I come to Boston, the three of us can relive some memories.”
He pulls something from his pocket and walks over to me, handing me a soft, velvet box.
“I was going to give you this later when we were getting dressed for the party. It would mean a lot if you’d wear them.”
I take the box from his shaky hand into mine. I don’t want to open it. It’ll rip me apart, but I do, and choke on a sob. Everything hurts, and I hate this feeling. I hate the helplessness of it. The wanting someone in your life you can no longer have.
“They match the diamond pendant Brax bought you to go with your gold chain.”
With that, he turns and walks out of the apartment, leaving me here with two sparkling diamond heart earrings and a broken heart.
26
