Page 71 of Make Me Whole
Chapter Thirty-Three
BRADLEY
What the hell?
A slap to the balls would've hurt less than the words she just threw at me. I was so busy trying to figure out what on earth had just happened, that I didn't notice her leave until she was a few feet away.
"Shit!"
Breaking out into a jog, I caught up with her in no time. I wrapped my hand around her wrist—her pulse hammered against my fingers—and pulled her to a stop. When she spun around, the knife lodged in my heart twisted a little more.
Thick tears were spilling down her cheeks; hot and fast. On instinct my hands shot up, my thumbs working furiously to swipe them away. "Hailey, talk to me." She started shaking her head again. "Please?" I heard the desperation in my strained voice.
"I can't stay, Bradley."
Those four little words had the ability to shatter my heart into a million pieces. I hurt in places where I had no idea I could hurt. And if it were anyone else, I would have stepped back and let her walk out of my life.
But this wasn't just anyone.
This was Hailey.
My Hailey.
The woman who'd showed me that no matter how broken I thought I was, I still had the capability to love. If she thought I was simply going to let her go without a fight, she had another thing coming.
"You already said that, sweetness. Now make me understand why."
Her breath hitched a couple of times while she tried to pull air into her lungs. She twisted her head and pulled away from my touch. I had no idea how I managed to keep the curses from spilling from my lips. "Please don't do this?" her voice was soft and shaky, it almost killed me.
"Hailey, you're walking away from me." I dragged my hand through my hair. Could she see it tremble? "I'd like to know why. What has changed so dramatically between yesterday and today?"
In the distance, I heard Bandit bark followed by the nervous shrieks of a few birds. But I couldn't bring myself to pay too much attention to it, not when my future was slipping through my fingers.
Hailey covered her face with her hands, her shoulders shook with each sob that left her. Every single cell in my body wanted to reach out and comfort her, so that's exactly what I did.
Reaching out, I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into my chest. Resting my cheek against the top of her head, I wanted nothing more than for the hurt to leave her. I dragged my hand up and down her spine and waited, with patience I had no idea I even possessed, for her to calm down.
When her sobs finally turned to sniffles, she shifted in my arms and took a step back. Those big green eyes were red-rimmed and still glistened; nothing but pain shining in them. "I don't belong here, Bradley."
"That's bullshit, sweetness." The words came out so hard and harsh, Hailey's eyes widened. I took a breath and softened my tone. "What would cause you to believe such a blatant lie?"
Her lip started to tremble, and she pulled it between her teeth. This time when the tears fell again, I curled my hands into tight fists at my side. I had a feeling that she needed a bit of space to work through whatever was going on in that pretty head of hers.
"I'm a failure." The words fell from her mouth just above a whisper. "I have nothing good to offer anyone. I can never teach again because there's no state that will reinstate the certification of a drunk. I don't have a lot of savings because almost all of it went into paying off debts and getting myself sober." I felt the sobs shuddering through her body all the way to my bones. "I have nothing."
I'd given her space, now it was time to give her the truth. Closing the distance between us, I gripped her chin between my fingers and held her gaze. "You don't have nothing. If you want it, you have a place to call home. You have people who adore you and already consider you part of the family. And—" I sucked in a deep breath. "—you have me. A man who loves you."
She opened her mouth to say something, but I stopped her with a sharp shake of my head. There were things she needed to hear. "I'm sorry for everything you lost, but your life story doesn't end there, Hailey. You have so much to give."
My heart was beating a nervous tattoo against my ribs. "You whirled into my life so unexpectedly, you just about knocked me on my ass. In two short months, you've crawled under my skin and pushed me so far out of my comfort zone; showing me all the things I've been missing out on."
More tears slipped from her lids and her nose turned bright red. But I couldn't bring myself to stop. "You're the sweet to my salty. The soft to my hard. But most importantly, you've shown me that even a broken man can find happiness.
"I love you, Hailey. So freaking much. Most days I have no clue what to do with all these feelings. I know I'm still rough around the edges and that there are about a million things I still need to work through."
My thumb brushed over her silky soft skin. "Please, stay. Not because I'm asking, but because you want to."
