Page 183 of Will Bark for Pizza
“This is too much.”
“It’s not half of what you deserve,” I shot back.
“I can’t do this, Beck. I’m sorry. I just . . . can’t.” The defeat in her cracked voice made my anger fuel hotter. If Travis were stupid enough to step foot in Bluebell Springs ever again, Luke would have to arrest me for what I’d do to him.
“You deserve to be happy,” I pressed, resisting the urgeto reach for her. To touch her. To cup her face and insist she look me in the damn eyes. “You deserve everything you’ve worked for, and so much more. Don’t let that asshole ruin that.”
“That’s not what’s happening here,” she said, sounding less fragile and more determined.
Good. That fire I’d come to know still burned within her. She just had to believe it, too.
“You need space?”
“Yes. No. I don’t know. I can’t do this. I’m not cut out for this. It’s better for everyone if we just go back to how things were before I kissed you on that dock.”
“Better for who?”
“Your grandma and your sister were right. You’re a really good man, Beckett. And the last thing you need is me complicating your life any more than I already have. You deserve better.”
“Kira—”
“Please, Beck. Please, just go. Don’t make this any harder for me than it already is.”
Every impulse demanded I stay and fight for the woman I loved. The woman who pulled me in from the first moment I spotted her on that paddleboard in the middle of Ghost Lake with her quirky dog. But impulses had gotten me nowhere in the past.
I did cup Kira’s cheek then, gently. I waited until she met my gaze and said, “I’ll give you all the time and space you need, Kira. But make no mistake. I’m not going anywhere. When you’re ready, you knowwhere to find me.”
I dropped a long kiss to her forehead and did the hardest fucking thing I’d ever done: I left.
SIXTY-TWO
KIRA
A hard knockpounded at the apartment door, and Husker perked up from his new favorite napping spot—the oversized sectional.
Luke.
Who else would knock like he wanted to execute a police raid? Husker popped off the couch as I saved my manuscript.
“I’m coming,” I called, as Luke knocked again.
“Took you long enough,” my brother said, sounding as grumpy as ever. The familiarity of it all was oddly comforting. I struggled to find comfort these days; my fault for pushing away the man I was definitely in love with.
But I stood by my decision.
Beckett deserved better than the broken, unhealed version of me. He deserved a woman who could love him with her whole heart. I didn’t know that my heart would everbewhole again.
He deserved someone who could appreciate his grand gestures. Not freak out because of them.
“You brought me iced coffee?” I asked, raising a suspicious eyebrow at the offering. “Am I in trouble?”
“That depends. Did you do something that’ll piss me off?”
“The bar’s not really set that high, so you’ll have to tell me.”
I reached for the coffee, but he pulled it out of reach. “What are we, twelve?”
“You need a shower.”
