Page 92 of All Your Fault

I swallowed. Was that true? Was Joe the one man I’d ever loved?

Had Will been right?

I looked out across the room, my eyes blurring with tears. Will was wrong about that. But he’d been right about me giving up on my real dreams. I’d been clinging to the blog because I thought it was how I’d stay connected to Joe. But he’d always be there, a beautiful part of who I was. That would never change.

But I had to.

“When I lost Joe, I gave up on my dreams. I shouldn’t have.”

I won’t.

“What do you have to lose, Reese?”

Reese was staring at me, her eyes now wet with tears. “Okay, that was good,” she said. “I guess you’re doing the pep talks from now on.”

She stood up, wiping the tears from her eyes with her fingertips.

I held my fingers over my mouth, my heart leaping in my chest. She was actually going to do it.

Reese wobbled a little as she took a step, but quickly recovered. Her glass was empty. She hadn’t eaten enough. No matter how impressive my speech had been, the liquid courage was the only thing actually making her stand up anddothis thing that terrified her.

I stood up too, giving my big sister a hug. “You’re going to be amazing,” I whispered.

Then I let her go, watching as she strode off in the direction of the lobby.

I only hoped I hadn’t sent her to do something she might regret. I was all nerves.

Food.

Food was always the answer.

Our meals were sitting on the table untouched. I sat down and picked up my fork, glancing over in the direction Reese had gone one last time, wishing she’d eaten something before running off.

Then I froze with my first bite only halfway to my mouth.

There was a man at the entrance.

A gorgeous man with salt and pepper hair wearing a dark, well-tailored suit and tie.

My stomach dropped. It was Will.

22

Michelle

For a moment, I just sat there, blinking.

Will Archer was standing at the entrance of this restaurant. At this resort. Where I was.

My only saving grace was that he hadn’t seen me.

The hostess, who even from here I could see was flirting with him, flipped her hair and laughed a little loudly before pointing somewhere over by the bar.

Will didn’t laugh. He looked like he wished he was anywhere but here. I watched as he walked away from her, a dark cloud practically hanging over him.

Why did I have the urge to run up to him? To throw my arms around him and make a stupid joke to get that cloud to part?

And what the fuck was he doing here anyway? We were three hundred miles away from Jewel Lakes. I couldn’t help but think of the line from Casablanca.Of all the gin joints in all the towns…

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