Page 106 of Situationship
“Then why did I have to find out from Jack and not you? Why did your ex and his ‘finance guy’ know before me?” He swallowed hard, a painful knot lodged in his throat. “When I needed an umbrella, you hesitated.”
“I’m in an incredibly difficult situation. And I didn’t tell you because it didn’t seem like a big deal at the time.” Her eyes filled with tears, and he wanted to promise her that everything would be okay, but he wasn’t sure it would. “Plus, I didn’t want to disappoint you. I was certain I could figure it out. I know I put you in a horrible situation.”
“No, you don’t know. This affects more than me and my plan. It reshapes the next few years. Unless Fucking Frank has an extra thirty grand in his pockets, that money will come out of my inheritance. Stop me from opening my own practice.” He had to look away. She was crying. He knew the situation was painful, and what he was saying hurt her. But he was hurting too. In those three seconds when she froze, she’d broken his trust. His plan. His heart. “You know how much that meant to me.”
She’d assured him that their relationship was a top priority, and he’d put his trust in her. Now he was left to question his current status in her life. Putting her kids first? He wouldn’t expect any less. Making time for her sister? Family always came first. Allowing Frank to manipulate his way between her and Colin? Unacceptable.
It was like a spear straight through his chest, burning a hole through everything he’d been banking on. The future they’d talked about.
“Colin, look at me.” Unlike her, he didn’t hesitate. For her, he’d never been able to hesitate, which was part of the problem. “I don’t know how, but I will come up with the money, even if I have to leverage my house.”
“Why should you have to do that?” He looked at Frank. “Why should she? This is your mess and, unlike you, I would never ask her to do something that would put the girls or their future at risk.” He turned to Teagan. “And I’d never do anything to hurt you.”
“I know, and that’s why I’ll come up with a plan to fix this myself.”
“Funny, I thought we were becoming an ‘us.’” He rubbed his hand over his chest, trying to ease the raw ache that had started gnawing at him. It didn’t help. He was starting to fear nothing would. “Jesus, I never wanted to feel this way again.”
“What kind of asshole asks a woman to put her relationship ahead of her family?” said Frank.
Colin turned on him, going chest to chest. “You’re not her family. That’s what it meant when you signed those divorce papers. When are you going to get it in your fucking head?”
“We still share Poppy and Lily, which makes me more family than you. So maybe you should leave.”
“You’re staying in my house, Frank,” she said, and a surge of hope filled him. He’d given her the space she needed to work out her relationship with Frank, but now he needed her to acknowledge that their relationship was important to her.
He wasn’t being possessive or getting into a pissing contest with Frank. He was simply asking if he mattered. He needed to know that they were in this together—no matter who or what challenge they confronted.
“Are you asking me to leave?” Frank asked.
She paused and in the silence, Colin could hear his heart pounding in his ears.
“This shouldn’t be a hard decision,” Colin said quietly, holding his breath. “He’s toxic. He leaves a wake of trouble in his path. For you, the girls, Harley, me, and now our relationship.”
“It’s more complicated than that,” she said quietly. “I don’t want my girls to go through what I went through after my parents divorced.”
With a finger under her chin, Colin tilted her head up. “You aren’t your parents. You are a strong, patient, and loving mother whose heart is so big, sometimes it gets in the way of your own happiness.”
The first tear spilled over her lashes, and he caught it with his thumb. She was scared—he knew that—so he wanted to remind her of just how good they were together. “I don’t want to make the same mistake.”
“I’m not Frank. You aren’t Amanda. We aren’t who we were twenty years ago. I love you,” he said roughly, and he heard her breath catch. He was pretty sure she loved him back, and before anything else happened, he wanted to put everything on the line. “I love you and I think you love me, but you’re so busy living in the past you can’t see the future.”
“I’m over the past.”
“If that were true, you wouldn’t have hesitated, you would have already asked Frank to leave, and you wouldn’t be using this situation to protect yourself.”
“I’m trying,” she said softly. “I just need time to figure things out.”
“There isn’t anything to figure out. Either you want this or you don’t. I want to be with you so bad I don’t care about the clinic because I know we’ll figure it out together. Because I’m in. All the way in. I need to know if I’m alone.”
“You’re not alone.”
“Then why haven’t you answered his question?”
He watched her swallow, watched the struggle in her fathomless brown eyes. “This would be like me asking you to choose between your family and me.”
“That’s the difference between us—you are my family. And if you don’t know that, then I don’t know what we’re doing here.”
She was quiet for a long moment and that killed him. It fucking killed him.
