Page 83 of Whisper of Surrender (Whisper Lake 2)

“We need to break up.”

She started to stand. “I know, but like I said, that’s going to put me in a very bad light and I need to keep my reputati—”

“I’m serious.” He barked.

She froze halfway up and her eyes widened before she sank back down onto the chair. “Okay.”

“I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, but you don’t have to. I don’t want you to.”

“Great, well now that we’ve got that settled.”

“Stop. Jess, listen to me.”

This time she stood all the way up. “I am. You said that you appreciate me doing things that I don’t have to and you don’t want me to do. This is not new information. If anything it’s more like a broken record.” She pivoted toward the kitchen either intentionally avoiding the conversation or just dismissing it all together.

“I want you to leave.” That got her attention so he went in for the kill. He took a deep breath, knowing that he needed to get this over with. The faster the better, like ripping off a bandage. It was either hurt her a little now or leave her devastated later. “Now.”

She slowly turned around.

***

“Where is thiscoming from?” She crossed her arms in front of her chest and tried to remain calm. Her plan had been to ignore his subtle and not-so-subtle attempts at calling things off between them in order to give her time to show him just how amazing they could be together, but it looked like her time was up.

“It’s not coming from anywhere. The plan was always to break up after the talent show. That was weeks ago.”

“Yeah, well,” she waved her hand up and down at him, “circumstances changed.”

“I know. But it’s time to get things back on track.”

“Back on track,” she repeated as her eyes narrowed.

“There’s no reason to keep this up. It’s time we both got back to living our lives.”

“Are you serious?” her tone was deadly calm.

“Yes.”

“You’re seriously breaking up with me?” Now her voice was borderline menacing.

“We were never together.”

“Really?” She unfolded her arms and her hands fisted at her sides. “What about Chicago? We weren’t together in Chicago?”

“Jess.”

“I swear to God, if you say my name one more time, I’m going to scream.”

“Chicago was great. But that’s not real life.”

No. She was not going to let him get away with this. There had been something between them and she wasn’t about to let him deny it.

“And what about Fourth of July? Or the other night when I came over as a nurse? That’s not real life?”

“That was sex. It was great, but like I said, I’m not looking for a relationship. I only asked you because I thought that you wouldn’t get attached. If that happened, I’m sorry, but I was clear from the beginning what this was and what it wasn’t.”

She knew he was lying, or at least she hoped he was. Either way, she wanted to find out. “You know, I was talking to Ali about that, that you only asked me because I didn’t like you, and you know what she did?”

Jess waited for him to respond, even though it was a rhetorical question. Finally, his head jerked slightly to the side and she chose to interpret it as a no head shake.

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