Page 107 of Stirring Up Love
“So glad you invited her,” he mumbled at Darius. Then to her, he said, “And I get it. You think I’m impulsive, and emotional—”
“Nah, man,” Darius broke in. “Can’t speak for Bella, but as for me, I’m jealous of you.”
“For walking away from two hundred thousand dollars?”
“For wearing your heart on your sleeve.” Darius sat forward, hands locked between his knees. “Life has tossed so much shit your way, andmost people would’ve closed off the world. But you’ve got this huge capacity for love. You don’t hold back.”
But he had. Closed off and shut down and walked away.
“You’re not your past, Finn. Don’t expect history to repeat itself.”
“And if it does, we’ll be here for you,” Bella said. “We’re not going anywhere.”
Gratitude tried and failed to cancel out his sense of loss. “I know you think I should fight for her. But—” His food churned in his stomach. “I just can’t right now. I’m exhausted from all of it. I have to leave it up to her.”
And no matter what his friends said, her decision was a foregone conclusion.
CHAPTER 38
SIMONE
An hour before the scheduled videoconference with Constance Rivera and Keith Donovan, Simone sat at the corner table of Honey and Hickory, internally hyperventilating. WebMD would probably tell her that wasn’t a thing, but it totally was.
Next to her laptop lay the paperwork sent over byThe Executives, with both their names listed. She half hoped when she logged in to the meeting she’d see Finn’s face on-screen, grinning, like it had been one big practical joke.
But she put the odds of him showing up as slim to none. She’d become another person who had made him doubt his worth, and that gutted her.
She’d asked for Meg’s advice, so she may as well take it. Here she sat—not planning what to say in the meeting, not strategizing—just sitting and feeling the full brunt of rejection, which was freaking brutal.
A slow-motion video of Finn played out in her mind every time she sat still.
Finn, watching her under his lashes in the cabin, faking sleep. Finn, huddled up under a blanket, losing horribly at the game of Life andlaughing about it. Finn, kissing her senseless at the Grand Canyon. Finn, lying beside her in a run-down mansion.
Finn, hearing her lie to Pops.
Finn, walking out the door.
Her phone rang, pulling her out of her spiraling emotions.Alisha?Why the heck was her sister calling from her honeymoon?
Expecting a dire emergency, and ashamed a threat to her sister’s welfare offered a welcome break from all this emotional work, she accepted the video chat. “Please tell me you’re not dead.”
“I don’t like how this is becoming our standard greeting,” Alisha said, very much alive and apparently intact.
“Maybe we should work on it, but what the heck? Why are you calling me from your honeymoon?” She lowered her voice. “Do we need to have the Talk?” Not waiting for Alisha’s answer, she said, “You see, when two consenting adults—”
“Cut it out, Sim.” But instead of scowling at her for the taunting, Alisha giggled. Must’ve been the effects of marathon sex. “It’s almost dinnertime here. We cannot have sex around the clock.”
Maybe not, but they could at least make an attempt. What else were honeymoons for?
“I wanted to make sure you were okay, since I didn’t get a chance to talk with you before our flight. Getting dumped at a wedding has got to be a top-ten worst-case scenario.”
“I did not get dumped.” Technically they hadn’t been together. “And for future reference—”
“You’re planning to get dumped at a wedding in the future?”
Simone kept talking over her. “For future reference, you phrasing it that way does not make things better.” Boyfriend or not, Finn leaving her hurt far worse than losing a chance at an investment from Constance and Keith ever could.
But she didn’t need to bring Alisha down on her honeymoon. “And getting dumped at a wedding reception barely ranks in the top-hundredworst-case scenarios. For instance, getting mauled by a rabid bear at a wedding? Way worse.”
