Page 1 of We Finished Here

PROLOGUE

SIX YEARS EARLIER…

I have a nervous breakdown in the bathroom on the plane. I’ve never felt so heartbroken in my entire life. I can’t stop my hands from shaking.

The tears continue to fall down my face all the way to Florida. I’m going to spend some time with my best friend Maddison Gray who lives there.

I just left Taylor James, the love of my life. The man I’ve loved since high school.

I left him while he lay sleeping after we made love for the last time, but only I knew it would be the last time.

My note explained my sudden departure in a last ditch effort to try and soften the blow and explain myself. I know nothing can do that.

If he left me this way, I know I would never recover.

So why am I doing this?

Why am I ripping my heart out and destroying his in the process?

My head has been so wrapped up in everything going on around us, I can’t see the wood for the trees. I love Taylor more than life itself, but the reality is, he has a life to live with his hockey career that can’t possibly include me. I really believe that.

I’m saving us more heartache in the long run, at least that’s what I tell myself.

It’s a shitty move and every breath feels like it’s being wrung out of my lungs.

I don’t even know what to do without him. He’s been a part of my life for so long that every second without him feels like an eternity.

I want the plane to turn around so I can go back and tell him I made a mistake. I want us to try. I know if he comes after me, I will fold, because I can’t keep up the pretense. That’s why I need to put some miles between us.

I know I’ll have missed calls from him. I will talk to him soon to explain, and try to convince him not to come to Florida, although it breaks me to even say the words.

As much as I want to see him, and watch him thrive in the NHL, it would be so much harder to continue on in close proximity.

So I’m leaving. Because it’s for the best.

I know if I stay and things go bad, I may be heartbroken forever.

So I will wait until the dust settles, and then see what becomes of us.

I just hope the pieces of my heart are intact when it does.

CHAPTER1

Present day…

Emmerson

I sit on the edge of my bed, clasping my hands together, taking a few last deep breaths before I head out of this house I’ve made a home for the last time.

I’ve lived in Miami, Florida, for the past six years. I decided to permanently move there after I broke up with Taylor.

It took me two years to remotely get over Taylor. Maddie was my rock as I mourned the loss of our relationship. She gave me a place to live, and an endless supply of support as well as tissues and my favorite mint ice cream.

When I think back to how it was back then, I wonder how the hell she put up with me. It couldn’t have been easy, because I know I wasn’t easy to live with.

I was completely heartbroken.

I didn’t actually want to break up with Taylor in the first place. I bowed out to give him time and space to move forward in his newly appointed NHL career. I thought I was doing the right thing.

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