Page 36 of Choosing Happily Ever After

She also knew that breaking up with him would be the hardest thing she ever had to do. Definitely harder than the first time they’d broken up. Because this time, she knew better. She knew what it would mean, and she knew there would be no third chance at their love.

Hope also knew that it was exactly what she had to do.

Before she could chicken out, Hope took Levi by both hands and squeezed. “I need you to know how much I care about you.”

“Of course, I—”

“No.” She stopped him. “I need to say this, Levi. Please.” Hope worked hard to swallow back the tears that threatened to overtake her. But she couldn’t cry. If she started, she wasn’t going to stop and then she’d never be able to say what she needed to. “I can’t see you anymore. This was a mistake.” The words tumbled out before she could change her mind. “I’m sorry if I led you on in anyway, but I…” She dropped her gaze for a moment, steeling herself. “It was just a big mistake,” she said again, this time as she looked straight into his eyes. “I’m sorry.”

Hope pulled her hands out of his and turned to walk away, when his voice stopped her. “Don’t do this.”

She froze for a minute, and looked back at him, careful to keep her face a cold mask of indifference that she didn’t feel. “I need you to leave, Levi. We’re in the middle of an event.”

Hope saw the hurt in his eyes, the confusion followed by pain and it killed her, but she couldn’t go back on what she’d just said. It was for his own good. He deserved the life that he wanted to live, not the one he felt hehadto because of her illness. He’d thank her one day. “Please, Levi.”

He opened his mouth to say something, but then glanced around at the festivities taking place all around him and closed it again. Without a word, Levi turned and walked away.

Hope’s hand flew to her mouth in an attempt to muffle the cry that had escaped. She wanted to call him back. And she might have, too, but Faith appeared by her side. “What just happened?” She didn’t give Hope a chance to answer. “Did you and Levi just… Hope, are you…oh shit.”

Her sister wrapped her arm around her and led her as discreetly as she could off the dance floor and into the kitchen where finally, Hope let herself cry.

ChapterEleven

Levi

“I don’t get it.”Levi felt like a broken record, but if Logan noticed, or even if he did, he didn’t say a word. In fact, to his cousin’s credit, he was being the perfect friend, letting Levi wallow in his sadness and broken-heartedness. It had been three days since Hope had broken up with him. Three days that Levi had tried to call her and text her and even stop by the ranch. Three days that he’d been met with total silence and avoidance. Which meant it had been three days that Levi had to feel even worse about what had happened.

“Why would she do that?” he continued. “Things were going so well.”

“Were they?”

Levi shot his cousin a look.

“Yes,” he confirmed. “Verywell.”

They’d been sitting in the Knot for the last hour and the only topic of conversation had been Hope. Or, more specifically, the way Hope had broken up with him and what possible reason she could have had for doing it.

“It was just over a week ago that we were at the house for dinner, remember?” Logan nodded. “And then we went back to…well, I took her…”

“I get it,” Logan said. “You took her home andmade love.You told me a dozen times already.” Logan lifted his beer and took a deep drink. “It was beautiful and magical and—”

Levi shot him a look that shut him up.

“Sorry,” Logan mumbled. “But all I’m saying is that maybe it wasn’t going as well as you thought it was, is all. I mean, obviously it wasn’t because if it was, we wouldn’t be sitting here right now, would we?”

He had a point, even if Levi didn’t want to admit it.

“Maybe you’re right.” Levi drank deeply from his own glass before refilling it with the jug in front of them. “Maybe I misread everything.”

But heknewhe hadn’t misread anything. The night they’d spent togetherhadbeen amazing. And it wasn’t just the sex—which was pretty friggin’ fantastic—it was everything. It was the way they’d talked.Reallytalked. About the past. How the last few years had been for him on the fishing boats. The challenges, the dreams he’d had, the places he’d traveled. And for her, they’d talked out how hard things had been when her parents had died, and the challenges she’d faced getting Ever After Ranch off the ground. They’d held each other and talked about their dreams for the future. Dreams, he didn’t want to admit at the time, that most definitely included her. Even when she’d mentioned children, he hadn’t changed the subject like he once might have. Because the truth was, the idea of children didn’t scare the hell out of him the way it used to. So he’d told her the truth.

He did want kids. But not for a while.

What he hadn’t told her was that she was the only person in the world that he could ever actually imagine having children with. But not before he showed her the world. Because now that he had her back in his life and in his arms, he never wanted to let go. And more than anything, he wanted to give her the world. Literally. There’d be time for children later. After they’d traveled together. When Hope told him that she’d never traveled farther than Las Vegas once for a trip with her sister, Levi had made it his mission to take her places. To show her that as amazing as their hometown was, there was a whole world out there that was amazing, too.

Which was why he’d bought her the tickets to Mexico. The same tickets that had sparked everything to change.

Levi pulled the ticket confirmation from his pocket and slapped them onto the table between him and Logan. “I thought that’s what she wanted,” he said with a shake of his head. “She told me that she wanted to travel. But when I told her about the tickets, she…”

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