Page 70 of One Last Run

"She cares about you," Izzy said, her voice firm.

Danica blinked in surprise. "What?”

"Pete. Obviously, Pete. I won't pretend to understand what you're doing just leaving like this, or what you two discussed last night, but I do know that she cares about you, and now you're sneaking out like a thief in the morning. She doesn't deserve that."

Danica stepped back to shut the trunk of her car. The familiar sting of unshed tears pressed against her throat, thickening the air. "I know."

"So, why do this to her, then?" Izzy said, crossing her arms.

"Because we don't have a future together," Danica said impatiently.

"Says who? Because I know she's not saying that. In fact, I bet she's already planning how to move to Denver to be with you," Izzy said, her brows furrowed as her eyes stayed steady on Danica.

Danica blinked away the tears that had begun forming in her eyes. "I can't ask her to do that. It'd be like putting a bird in a cage."

Izzy huffed with exasperation. "Pete isn't a bird. She's a human being who loves you."

Danica’s eyes stung from the cold and the tears welling within them. She used her ice scraper to aggressively clear the ice from her windshield.

“You’re lying to yourself,” Izzy said, her voice raised and her cheeks flushed.

Danica stopped to glare across the car’s hood. “You don’t even know me.”

“I’ve known you since we were eighteen. I know you pretend to be some person who has it all together and that you can’t handle when your life isn’t perfect.”

“Spare me the soapbox life lessons,” Danica said, fuming. Izzy’s words were dangerously close to mirroring the little voice in the back of her head that always told her she wasn’t trying hard enough. “I wasn’t ready to talk about Eddie?—”

“I’m not talking about Eddie! I don’t even care about him. Just because you don't show it, doesn't mean you aren't struggling.”

Danica paused, staring at Izzy. Her body shook with cold. She was not wearing the right shoes to be getting lectured in a parking lot in below freezing temperatures. “Why do you care?”

"I care about Pete, and she cares about you. And I know that she's spent the last fifteen years trying to get over you by running all over the globe, working hard to build help others. Then it dawned on me last night when she told me wants to travel less, be more stable and build a life. There's only one person who she'd do that for." Izzy pulled her fleece jacket tighter around her against the chill of daybreak.

Danica moved to the other side of the car to continue clearing her windshield. "I don't want her to compromise anything for me."

“Believe me, I don’t either. But you have to let her make her own decisions," Izzy said. "Instead, you're being a stubborn, proud, idiot. Just like you usually are."

"Wow, Izzy. Thank you for the pep talk." Danica clenched her jaw.

"Just…” Izzy sighed with frustration. “Just think about it.” Izzy's expression had softened, which made Danica second-guess her reluctance to listen.

“There’s nothing more to think about.” Danica opened the driver's side door, tossing the ice scraper onto the passenger side floor.

“You know what I mean. Don’t shut Pete out again.”

Danica shook her head, anxious to get away from this conversation. "Have a good one, Izzy.”

Izzy grumbled something about how she'd at least tried, and turned to walk inside.

Danica turned up her seat heater, rubbing her hands together to feel warmth again. She wiped at her eyes, confused by what Izzy had said to her. Izzy had voiced Danica’s worst fears — that everyone saw through her facade. Had she been the one to shut Pete out before? Pete had been far more casual about a future with Danica when they’d had their big fight in the quad on graduation night, but she’d at least wanted to see what would happen. It had been Danica who had told her she was being an idealistic, immature idiot.

Was she doing the same thing all over again?

She paused, glancing back at the condo, half-expecting to see Pete standing there, but the door was closed. The snow crunched under the tires as she turned out of the lot and onto the road toward home.

It didn’t matter. She wouldn’t ask Pete to change for her, and Pete couldn’t ask her to sacrifice her stability. They were just too different. They wanted different things.

Didn’t they?

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