Page 2 of Moon Destiny

But I was never invited. It was as though he wanted to keep me at arm’s length.

I stopped in my tracks, a sudden thought forming in my head. “Alex, wait.”

He turned, frowning. “What is it?” Something in my face must have alarmed him, because he closed the distance between us, his eyes full of concern. “Brooke?”

“Are you ashamed of me?”

He snapped his mouth shut, unmistakable confusion flitting over his features. “What? Of course not. Why would you ask that?”

I held his gaze. It was obvious he told the truth. But now he was waiting for an explanation. “I don’t know. It’s just…” Did I really want to have this conversation here, in the middle of the trail? On the other hand, if we didn’t talk now, we’d go back to Seattle with nothing resolved between us.

I drew a deep breath. “Every time I ask about your family—your dad, specifically—you kind of shut me down.” I shrugged. “I thought maybe the problem was me.”

His mouth tightened. “There’s no problem. I told you, Dad’s busy.”

“For two years?” The wind whipped harder around us, carrying the scent of rain and lifting goosebumps on my arms. But I barely noticed as frustration clouded Alex’s eyes.

“Is it really that important to you to meet him?” he demanded.

“It’s important to me to be part of your life. You’re so secretive about him, sometimes I wonder if your family’s in the mafia.” I gave a halfhearted laugh.

But Alex didn’t smile.

Alarm spiked in my mind. I’d meant it as a joke. There weren’t any mob empires in southern Washington. But that didn’t mean Alex’s father wasn’t involved in some other kind of criminal enterprise.

My heart sped up. “Is your dad doing something illegal?”

He huffed. “If you knew my father, you’d know that’s the furthest thing from the truth.”

“But that’s just it! I don’t know him.” Frustration joined the anger swirling through me, and the floodgates opened. Now that I finally had a chance to say all the things I’d been holding back, I couldn’t stop the words from spilling out. “There’s this whole side of you I know nothing about. And now you’re gone every other weekend and it’s like you drop off the face of the earth when you’re at your dad’s place. When you get back, you don’t want to talk.” I lowered my voice even though it was just us on the trail. “We haven’t slept together in three months. I’ve been trying to make it work between us, Alex, but I don’t know if I can do it anymore.”

His eyes widened, his face a mask of shock. “What are you saying?” His brows pulled together. “Are you breaking up with me?”

“I… Maybe it’s for the best.”

He cursed, then swung away and ran a hand through his dark blond hair.

I drew a shaky breath. “This isn’t how I wanted to do this.”

He turned back, his features taut. “Yeah, I have to agree you picked a really shitty time to drop something like this on me, Brooke.”

“What other time should I have done it?” I demanded. “We’re never in the same place long enough to have a conversation. You don’t answer your phone—”

“It’s hard to get reception at my dad’s place.” He lifted his hands. “Look, I know you have questions, but I can’t explain everything just yet. All I can say is that my father needs me. It wasn’t supposed to be this way, and it’s been a bit of a struggle realizing I have to change my entire life around.”

Some of my anger drained away. His father needed him? A range of possibilities flipped through my head. “Is he sick?”

“No.”

“Then what is it?”

“I can’t talk about it. Not right now.” He drew a deep breath, his eyes full of emotion. “I want this to work. I— I care about you, Brooke.”

Misery wound through me. Care wasn’t love. We’d never said it. He obviously couldn’t bring himself to say it now. And even if he could, his secrecy was a wedge between us. His dad wasn’t sick, nor was he a criminal. So what was the problem? And why didn’t Alex trust me enough to fill me in?

But if I was totally honest with myself, whatever secrets he was hiding weren’t the only thing wrong with our relationship. The spark was gone. When he went on his trips, I didn’t long for him to return. I missed him, sure, but I didn’t feel like I was missing out. Somewhere along the way, he’d become a friend instead of the man I wanted to spend my life with.

And I couldn’t keep this charade going anymore.

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