Page 139 of When Fate Breaks
“Blake, please,” I beg. “It’s just– It’s not that simple. This isn’t just about me.”
He slowly turns to look at me, his eyes vacant.
“It’s beenfive years,” I say. “I’m in deep, okay? Remy is my fiancé. I made a promise to him. And if it wasn’t for Remy, Dad would have lost his store. Blake, it’s the only thing he has left–”
“He has you, Evangeline. He has Steph. And your father is a grown man. Do you think he’d let his daughter fight his battles for him for one second if he knew that’s what you’ve been doing all this time? Especially if it meant sacrificing your own happiness and freedom?”
I swallow painfully, my eyes and throat officially out of moisture to give. “I made a promise,” I repeat. “I just… I need to think. I need some time. Please.”
Blake lets out a harsh laugh, sounding nothing like the boy I’ve known nearly my whole life. “Yeah,” he nods. “Well, you do that, Evangeline.Thinkall you want. Take all the time in the world.” In the span of a second, the anger in his eyes melts straight to sad disbelief. “We both know it’ll never be enough.”
And, with that, he walks in the house, slamming the door and leaving me alone in the greenhouse with only the sound of the rain against the glass and the slow and painful breaking of my heart.
28
PRESENT DAY
Remy talks, but it just sounds like a muffled whir in my ears. I’m not hearing a word he says, but it doesn’t matter right now. He’s still working to close this deal, to buy out this mom-and-pop BBQ restaurant from the Witters, an elderly couple that has lived in Ramer and owned the place for over twenty-five years. Remy’s been working them down for the last two weeks and brought me along today to handle the paperwork and logistics once he closed the deal. Notif.When.
Because he always gets what he wants.
My fingers thrum against the clipboard I’m holding down at my side. I focus in on the light patter, and can’t help but associate the sound with rain.
The sound of rain against a greenhouse roof.
I increase the speed of my finger drumming as my heart rate instantly spikes. Blake and I haven’t talked since last night. Remy and I haven’t talked either.
I was in bed, passed out from every form of exhaustion to the point that I didn’t even notice Remy crawling in with me at the early hours of the morning. We had woken up as far apart from one another as we could possibly get in the large king-sized bed, each of us facing our own wall. When I sat up and saw him lying there, the wave of guilt I had expected to drown me only came as a minor punch to the gut compared to the suffocating hollow sadness I felt. I began to reach for him and opened my mouth, no clue what I was about to say to him, but it didn’t matter. Remy’s alarm on his cell phone went off loudly, instantly shaking him awake. He hopped straight up and out of bed, his arms stretching high over his head. I took in the shape of him and his messy blonde hair.
He really was handsome.
He had started to head straight for the bathroom, then stopped, turning back to me.
“Apple Jacks,” he muttered, walking back to the bed and crawling over it to press a kiss to the top of my head and wrap his arms around me. I felt stiff and wrong in his arms, but I didn't pull away. He leaned back and looked down at me, a grin pulling at the corner of his mouth. “I’m so happy,” he said.
My heart thudded against my chest. “Really?” I asked, my voice cracking.
“So happy,” Remy confirmed, crawling off the bed and back towards the bathroom. “Today’s the day.”
My brows scrunched in confusion.
“The day we get Witters BBQ!”
Oh.
A lump settled in my throat as I realized neither that smile or that happiness had anything to do with me.
“Oh, babe, by the way,” Remy called from the bathroom, “I forgot to tell you.”
“Hmm?”
“I talked to Angela yesterday,” he said, referring to his family’s accountant. “She said Jacks Hardware’s last quarter was the best we’ve had financially in the last five years.”
My mouth went dry.
The bestwe’vehad.
“That’s great, babe,” I croaked. But he didn’t hear me, the bathroom door closing before I had a chance to respond.
