Page 354 of One More Kiss

“That’s bullshit, and you know it.” I hurl the words at him. “You wouldn’t have come if you didn’t want to. You just got here, but now you’re ready to call it a night? Right after I walk over. Right after Deac tells you I’m staying in town for good. I’m supposed to believe that’s a coincidence?”

He rolls his eyes and his mouth quirks up in a smirk that shouldn’t be sexy but is. “Believe whatever you want, Jules. It’s not my concern.”

For some reason, his feigned indifference pisses me off more than his anger would. Why can’t he admit that he’s been avoiding me? Why can’t he admit that my presence bothers him? It’s not that I want to be the reason he keeps leaving, but I’m so sick of watching him pretend like I mean nothing to him.

“What happened to you?” I whisper. To my horror, I feel my eyes start to sting and a lump forming in my throat. I give him one last look before I turn to walk back inside. “Forget it.”

I shake my head, hoping he can’t tell I’m on the verge of tears. I’ve cried enough over Cole Parker. I refuse to shed more tears for a man who clearly doesn’t care about me. No matter what we once meant to each other, it’s obvious Cole moved on long ago. I thought I had too, but tonight just proved how wrong I’ve been. I need to find a quiet spot to pull myself together before I go back inside to Anna and Deac. I don’t want them to see how much Cole upset me.

“Go on, run away,” Cole shouts from behind me. “That’s what you’re good at.”

I whirl around, my face hot with fury. “You should know! You’ve been doing it since I got back.”

He rolls his eyes and sneers. “Well, I learned how from you.”

“That’s not fair, and you know it,” I bite off. “I left because I had to. What’s your excuse?”

There’s a flicker of confusion in his expression, but it’s gone in an instant. All at once, I’ve had it. I’m sick of tiptoeing around our past. I’m tired of pretending we aren’t both still hung up on something that happened a decade ago.

“I left because my parents forced me to,” I say, my voice hard. I take a step toward him, but he stands his ground. “I was a kid. We both were.” I’m close enough now to see those flecks of green in his hazel eyes.

“After everything that happened, I didn’t have a choice,” I bite off. “So, I went. Even though it killed me to go. But at least I came back.”

He scoffs. “Yeah, a decade later.”

“Try six months.”

“What?”

“Forget it,” I mutter, turning to leave. I’m finished trying to make peace with him.

Cole’s hand clamps down on my upper arm and he spins me around to face him. His grip isn’t tight enough to hurt, but it’s enough that I know I can’t break free unless he lets me go.

“What?” I snap. “What do you want from me?”

Cole doesn’t speak for several long seconds. I bring my gaze up to his face and immediately wish I hadn’t.

“What did you mean by that?” he asks. His tone makes it clear that he’s not going to give up until I tell him what he wants to know.

I sigh. “I came back here. Six months after I left. I was 18 by then, so they couldn’t stop me.”

Cole can’t hide the surprise in his eyes at my confession. But I don’t care what he thinks anymore. All the fight is gone from me now.

“I came back for you,” I say, my voice hard. “But you were gone. Your dad told me you’d joined the Army. In the middle of a fucking war.” Okay, so maybe there’s still some fight left in me because I can’t hide the anger and hurt in my words. “I didn’t know how to contact you. I didn’t know where you were. I didn’t even know if you were alive or dead.”

“Jules.”

Cole’s voice is low and filled with surprise and pain. The way he says my name makes something inside me twist painfully. I close my eyes against the tidal wave of emotion, working to shove it back behind the barrier I’d built all those years ago.

“So, I went back home,” I say, my voice quieter now. “I went to the college my parents chose for me. I took the classes they suggested. I did everything to be the good, dutiful daughter. Because the one thing I wanted more than anything was no longer an option for me. So, it didn’t matter anymore.”

I laugh, but there’s no humor in it. “Hell, I even married a guy they approved of. Not that it mattered in the end.” I shake my head. “They sure weren’t happy about the divorce, though.”

“Jules.” This time, my name is almost a question on Cole’s lips.

For some reason, that pisses me off even more.

“No,” I say, yanking my arm free of his grip. Cole makes no move to reach for me again. “You were gone. And I had to put myself back together and move on. I will not apologize for the way I chose to fix what was broken. And you don’t get to be pissed about it either.”

He stands there looking down at me. I don’t understand the expression on his face. It looks like a mixture of regret, hope, longing and maybe grief. But I can’t focus on that right now. If I do, I’ll dissolve into a puddle of tears and that’s not how I want to spend tonight. So, I do exactly what he accused me of being so good at. I leave.

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