Page 104 of Secrets in the Deep

“You hate Blue Moon.”

He lifted a shoulder. “You don’t.” He paid, then led her back outside.

It was like the ice cream all over again. And she liked it. More than she cared to admit.

She thought he’d lead her to his truck. Take the beer home so she could drown her sorrows on his couch. Instead, he walked her to the gazebo.

He lowered onto the top step before patting the spot beside him. “Sit.”

“You’re not worried this mysterious movie killer’s going to get us?”

“There are too many people around. Besides, if they do come, I can shoot them and we won’t have to worry anymore.”

Her lips twitched as she sat. “Cocky, as usual.”

“Nope. Self-aware. This asshole doesn’t want to cross me, and they know it.” He twisted the cap off and handed it to her. “Here.”

She took the beer, and the glass was cold beneath her fingers. “This reminds me of the night we met.”

“You mean the night you fell in love with me at first sight.”

She couldn’t even laugh. It was true. She’d been willing to throw away every dream then and there, to the point her entire future had rearranged itself in one night. “Remember when you told me you were a SEAL?”

He chuckled, his gaze lowering the beer in his hold. “I believe you were up to cocktail number three when you said, ‘Like the fish?’ then asked if I could balance a ball on my nose.”

This timeshelaughed. “You so could have gotten lucky and taken advantage of me that night.”

“Nah, I was in it for the long game.”

Her small smile slipped. “Until you weren’t.”

“Emi…”

“Sometimes, I kind of get why you did it. I understand that I was about to give up something really big for a relationship that was pretty new. I know that you thought you were doing what was best for me.” She looked at him. Really looked. Into his chocolate-brown eyes. Eyes that almost looked black in the dark night.

“It was wrong…but I still kind of get it. What Idon’tget, is how you could do it again. How you can see what this career has cost me, how sad it makes me, and still think that I’m better off doingthisrather than being with you.”

A deep crease formed between his brows. “It makes you sad?”

“It feels like trying to breathe under water. The actual acting part, I love. But maybe that’s because when I act, I’m not me. I can let myself go numb for a while. At least I could…until I came here.”

“You hate it that much?”

“I hate it that much.”

“Then why keep doing it?”

Wasn’t that obvious? “What was my alternative? You walked away. Acting was all I had left. Should I have walked away from that too and been left with nothing?”

Emily,the most beautiful woman he’d ever met, thought that without him or acting, she had nothing? “Emi, you are so much more than your career. There isn’t a version of you that wouldn’t be remarkable in anything you did.”

Her brows flickered. “I liked the version of me with you the most.”

Fuck. He didn’t know how to respond to that. Did he admit that his best version was with her too? That after her, anything that had once made him smile just fell flat? Replaced by an emptiness at the knowledge that she was missing?

“Can I ask you something?”

A part of him wanted to say no. Because his gut said her question could ruin him.