Page 54 of Hothead

She’d read enough. Uncurling her fingers, she let the paper drop back onto the wooden surface. She felt sick. Had it all been a lie? Their connection. Her new friends, who just so happened to be his friends too. All this time, had she just been a fucking charity case?

No. Luke wouldn’t do that. His walls came down just for you. You saw it with your own eyes.

She wanted to believe that. So badly. But the doubts kept coming. The guilt Luke felt and how much it was tearing him up. Her new friendship with the girlfriends of his friends. The insistence on her moving in. Marco’s words wouldn’t stop echoing. Luke had neatly ticked off each of his brother’s requests. Form a bond, check. Introduce her to his friends and their partners, check. Give her a safe place to come back to, check. But the worst one, the one hardest to swallow was that for the first time in a long time, she didn’t feel alone.

Fuck.

She needed to get out of there. Her head was starting to spin.

How could I have been so stupid?

Luke had told her from the start. He didn’t do relationships. Ever. And he didn’t. There she was thinking that this was different. That she was somehow special. That there was a chance that he’d fallen for her like she’d fallen for him. But he hadn’t, and she wasn’t special. He just felt sorry for her.

Scurrying out of the mancave, she went straight for the stairs and up to the bedroom. She needed to pack.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Luke had made up hismind. He was going to ask Bella to stay. And if she didn’t want to, then he was going to ask her if they could do long distance for a while. He was finally ready for a relationship. As long as it was with her. If ever there was a woman for him, it was Bella.

As he pulled into his driveway, though, his newfound calmness disappeared and panic set in. Bella’s car was next to his, the trunk wide open as she hauled bags inside. Her bags. It didn’t take a genius to work out that she was leaving.

Without delay, he was out of his car and stamping stone. Unable to keep his cool. “What the hell is going on?”

The boot of Bella’s car slammed shut as her head shot up. But she didn’t meet his gaze as she rounded the car. “Um, hey.” Why was she not looking at him? “So, I know I was supposed to leave in two days, but something came up.”

What the fuck?

“Something came up?” he repeated in a no doubt incredulous tone.

“Yeah.” She nodded, mostly at the ground. “A work thing, so, yeah, I’ve got to get back.”

The coldness in Bella’s voice was making his chest ache. What on earth had happened between him kissing her goodbye this morning to her packing up her stuff two days early? And why the hell wasn’t she looking him in the eye?

Severely lacking patience, he decided to ask just that. But first he needed her eyes. “Angel, look at me?” When she didn’t, he tried again. “Please, angel, look at me.”

Slowly, silver lifted to meet him. But he didn’t recognize what he saw. They were blank. Devoid of any emotion. And it reminded him so much of himself, it scared the shit out of him.

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