“Don’t do that,” he rasped.
She frowned sharply. “Don’t dowhat?”
“Thatthing.” He tugged his hand out from her grasp and pulled hard at his hair in frustration. “You’re asking me to be honest and you’re sitting there lying to protect my feelings.”
Her mouth opened and shut several times before she finally managed to get out, “I’m not lying, Brendon. I’m—”
“Covering up the truth, then. Brushing it under the rug. Bandaging it up in a neat bow so I won’t worry. Whatever youwant to call it, you’ve been doing it for as long as I can remember. Hell, Darce, you realize it’s not exactly normal that you pretended to be Santa Claus just so I’d keep believing in him after Mom and Dad dropped the ball, right?”
Her lips parted, her jaw falling open. “You weren’t supposed to know about that.”
She had been protecting him from the harshness of reality for most of his life, but she couldn’t protect him from feelingthis. This crushing sense of disappointment that came from wanting Annie so badly and doing everything in his power to show her he cared and still not measuring up. From the fact that after everything, she’d still questioned the veracity of his feelings. That she hadn’t felt secure enough with him to let herself want him, maybe.
“I know,” he said.
He could only imagine everything Darcy had done for him that he hadn’t witnessed. A fresh ache settled in his chest and he tapped her shin lightly with his foot beneath the table.
Darcy’s chin quivered. “I honestly don’t know if Annie’s coming back.”
Darcy’s inhale sounded more like a gasp. Her face had gone red, her eyes, too. A renegade tear slipped down her cheek and she swiped at it angrily.
He clutched the armrests tighter. “I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
Her eyes lifted and her lips parted, a disbelieving huff leaving her mouth. “You’recrying, Brendon. I’m crying because you are.”
He lifted a hand to his face and—fuck. His fingers were wetbecause he was crying in the middle of a restaurant in the middle of his lunch hour. He scrambled for his napkin and wiped his burning face with the stiff, overly starched cloth. As soon as he staunched his tears, he stood, reaching inside his back pocket for his wallet. He ignored Darcy’s look of dismay and threw down enough cash to cover their meal.
“Brendon—”
“I need some space,” he blurted, a hysterical laugh following on the heels of his explanation as soon as his choice of words sank in.
Her fingers snared his wrist, stopping him from making a quick escape. “Are you going to be okay?”
I’ll be finehovered on the tip of his tongue, but something in her stare drove him to be honest. “Ask me in another week, okay?”
He didn’t know what he was right now, only that everything hurt.
She nodded, looking on the verge of tears.
“Hey.” He tapped her on the shoulder. “I really am happy for you and Elle.”
She blotted her eyes and offered him a small smile. “Thanks, Brendon.”
When it came to matchmaking, bringing people together, helping them find their happily-ever-after, he got it right more often than he didn’t.
He only wished he wasn’t the exception.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Sunday, June 20
Annie stared at the pros-and-cons list she’d scribbled on a napkin during her flight. Aside from a few added scribbles, it hadn’t changed in the week since she’d been back in Philadelphia.
Seattle
+Friends
+Darcy