Page 113 of Penny & Royce

He blinked a few times, then sighed. “I know I sound crazy. Any logical person would agree. Heck, if someone came up to me and told me they fell in love at first sight—for real—I would have asked if they hit their head on something. If they told me that the girl they fell in love with was going to be the only one they’d ever want even though they’d never had a serious relationship, I might even try to convince them to go on twenty blind dates just to prove a point.”

Royce cut his friend a glance, not surprised that he couldn’t read her expression.

If he could have predicted what would happen after getting married, he never would have guessed that he’d end up here.

Shoulders slumping, he sighed. “I told her I wouldn’t deny her if, after taking a little more time to think about it, she asked me to walk away. And yet I can’t bring myself to sign any of it.”

He waved a hand at the folder where some of the pages were peeking through. “What’s wrong with me?”

“Nothing’s wrong with you,” Quinn whispered. “Nothing, you hear me?”

Royce shrugged. “Something is wrong. No one is willing to accept that I feel like I lost part of myself when I lost her. I don’t know how to explain that in a way that doesn’t make me sound ridiculous.”

“Huh,” Quinn muttered.

“What?”

“Just never thought you’d be the romantic type, and yet she managed to bring it out of you.”

He chuckled, but there was no real humor in it. “I can’t imagine my life any other way. Not now. Not after…” He swallowed, but the lump in his throat remained lodged there. “She’s… I can’t lose her, Quinn. I’d do anything to have her back. I’d walk away from…” He gestured around them. “…all of this. I’d accept being disowned if that was what it took.”

Quinn arched a brow. “Did you tell her that?”

Royce lifted a shoulder. “She knows, I think. And maybe that’s part of the problem. We’ve talked about how important family ties are. When she saw the fight between me and my brother, I think she got scared. She doesn’t want to be the reason everything falls apart.” He looked toward the fields, his jaw tight. “What she doesn’t get is that she doesn’t have control over any of it. This should be my decision too.”

“You won’t get any arguments from me there,” Quinn said quietly. “So what are you going to do?”

Royce glanced toward the paperwork again. It seemed to stare back, taunting him.

“I know I’ll never fall for another woman. Nothing compares to what I have with Penny, and nothing ever will. If that makes me an idiot, then so be it. I don’t care.” His voice lowered. “I’d rather die alone than build a life with someone I can’t love with my whole heart.”

“That’s… so sad.”

Within those words was the first sign of emotion beyond surface-level empathy that Quinn had ever shown. There was a tremor in her voice, and the way she avoided looking directly at Royce had him giving her a double take. She bit down on her lips and stared up at the sky.

This conversation was too heavy.

They needed to talk about something else.

Anything else.

Royce jerked his chin toward the duffel. “So you’re kicking me out?”

Quinn sighed. “I planned to. I wanted to do something to set a fire under you. This whole time you’ve been staying at my place, you’ve been stuck in a sort of limbo. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve caught you staring at that paperwork, and you only just got it yesterday.” Her mouth tugged to one side. “It’s not hard to see how much you want to burn it. Don’t even bother denying it.”

Royce shook his head. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

“And yet you won’t sign them. You can’t seem to pull the trigger.”

“I just told you why I couldn’t. Or, maybe I haven’t been able to do it yet because God has something else in mind.”

She sighed. “Yeah, maybe.”

They sat there in silence for a long moment.

Then Quinn asked, “What about her?”

“Penny?”