Page 71 of Trophy
“You don’t owe me—” Rob began.
“Hey!” Keith interrupted. “I never welch on my bets. It was a hundred dollars that you couldn’t get her to go out with you in three months. Well, three months was last week, and you’ve done way more than go out with her.”
Allison blinked.
“Would you shut up?” Rob muttered, his hushed voice growing fainter, like he was pulling Keith farther from the front door.
He didn’t want her to hear this, exactly as he didn’t want her to see that ring in his drawer.
They must have made some sort of bet that Rob couldn’t get Allison to go out with him.
And he’d won. He’d won her. So now he could put her on the shelf like another trophy.
She knew the thought wasn’t fair. She knew that if he’d made that bet, it would have been before he’d really known her. She knew she was the one who couldn’t be anything but dependent and it wasn’t really him at all. But the knowledge crystallized all the chaotic fears and conclusions swirling inside her.
She knew what she needed to do now. She had to do what was best for both of them, even if it meant giving up something she was just now realizing she desperately wanted.
She took a deep breath and walked back to Rob’s bedroom. She’d left some of her things there over the last few weeks, and she needed to get them.
This time she was going to be strong. She wasn’t going to cling. She wasn’t going to end up in another strong man’s arms because she was too weak to do what she knew was right. She wasn’t going to cave and say the things Rob wanted her to say.
She wasn’t going to change her mind.
Rob waved at Keith and then headed back into the house to find Allison.
Something still didn’t feel quite right with her. She must still be upset about last night, so he needed to fix it.
He’d been stupid to leave her the way he had. He’d been weak and cowardly—trying to escape from a hard conversation. Dee might have needed him, but Allison had needed him more.
He’d hoped, when she didn’t confront him after he came back to bed, that it wouldn’t be a big deal. But it was. He knew it was.
He didn’t see her in the living room or kitchen. “Allison?”
She didn’t answer, so he wandered down the hall until he found her in his bedroom. She was collecting an armful of her clothes that had been left in his room over the past few weeks.
“What are you doing?” he asked, trying to read her expression and failing.
“Getting my stuff.”
“Why?” His unsettled feeling had shifted into fear, but he didn’t know why.
She didn’t answer. She just straightened up and gave him a ghost of a smile. “So you made a bet about me, did you?”
Damn it. She must have overheard Keith out on the porch. What the hell had Keith been thinking, saying something like that when Allison was around? “It’s not what you think.”
“I know. It was just a silly bet you made before you knew me.”
He released a rough sigh. “Yes. That’s it exactly. It was stupid and insensitive, but it didn’t mean anything. I’d never use you like a bet. You know that.”
“I do know that.” She wasn’t meeting his eyes, and she leaned down to pick up a shirt of hers that had slipped out of her hands.
“So why are you getting all your stuff?”
She straightened up and met his eyes. “I’m leaving.”
The words were like a blow to the gut. “What?What? Why?”
“This isn’t going to work.”
