Page 80 of Finding Their Place

Swelled pupils overran the whiskey brown of her eyes. Pink flushed her cheeks and swollen lips. Her satiny skin rested beneath my fingertips, but I kept them still while drawing breath.

Perhaps this was why Wyatt had taken off. To miss the shit storm about to rain down on me. Or maybe he’d bowed out to let us figure shit out and move forward.

Either way, I fucking hated him in that moment, the unwanted climax he’d forced on Haley’s and my relationship.

“I’m not gay.”

Haley blinked.

“I mean, I do like guys but women too,” I hastened to add, hoping to lessen the blow.

Her brow furrowed again—deeper—her body stiffening slightly against mine.

“You,” I tacked on, needing her to understand—and accept.

“As in straight for me, or…” Her tone was guarded as fuck, so goddamn telling that I wanted to curl up in a ball and die.

“I’m bi,” I whispered what I should have told her months earlier, even while knowing I doomed myself to heartache.

She blinked again, her lips going into a thin line. “You lied to me.”

“I was desperate, Hal. Alec kicked me out, and I was living in my car.”

I didn’t stop her as she pulled away from me, rolling off the bed. Pulse racing and hands clenched, I swallowed hard.

“Hal, please. Let me explain—I didn’t have any other choice.” My voice cracked along with my heart.

She snatched her sleep shirt up off the floor and yanked it over her gorgeous body.

“And it was really only a half-lie—”

Haley spun to face me, fire in her eyes. “There’s no such thing!”

Disappointment in myself, for the hurt I’d caused the woman I loved more than anything on earth, settled over my shoulders, weighing me down. Tears stung my eyes. “Hal—”

“You lied! Manipulated me into giving you what you needed. End of. I—I can’t fucking believe this.” Her voice broke, and she wrapped her arms around herself, shutting me out—ripping my goddamn soul in two. “I allowed you inside my head, Garrett. My heart…you… Fuck.”

Shit.

I hopped off the bed, desperate to drag her against me and make everything better, but she stepped back, hand held up like a big fucking stop sign glaring red in the darkness settling over my mind.

“You need to leave,” she rasped the words as though her heart broke, but I saw the wall she thrust between us, the anger rising to shroud her hurt.

“Hal, please.” I swallowed against the sob wanting to rip from my chest. “Let me explain—”

“Feed me more lies?” She snorted a harsh, sarcastic laugh, her eyes glinting with the prickliness I adored. “You know me better than that, Garrett Moore. I can’t fucking believe you did this to me.”

“Hal—”

“Pack your shit and get the fuck out of my apartment.” She spun and headed into the hallway. “I’m hopping in the shower. You better be gone before I’m done.”

The bathroom door slammed shut behind her, the lock clicking harshly in the sudden silence.

Sinking onto the edge of her bed, I clutched my head in my hands. Agony ripped through my core.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” I pulled at my hair, teeth clenched against hollering my frustration and hurt. Pain I’d caused both of us.

I knew it would come to this. Fucking knew! Goddamnit!

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