Page 98 of Grasp The Moment

She’s leaving me… leaving us.

“Trusted?” I croak out, finding my voice and strength. I can’t let her go, Iwon’tlose her. Not now,not ever.

Hell, I love this girl, and I haven’t even told her yet.

She sighs, stopping in her tracks and running a hand through her hair. “Look… I don’t know what to think right now—I need space.”

I reel back. “No.”

She tilts her head, her eyes ablaze with anger. “No?”

“Do you want to hear it in Spanish, darlin’? You will not leave me because you’re mad at me. Let’s go somewhere and talk about this like adults,” I say with the utmost confidence, but my heart is racing a mile a minute as her eye twitches.

“No,” she says, putting her foot down, and now I’m the one tilting my head.

“No?”

“Do you want to hear it inFrench? I saidno. Derek, you lied to me—omitted the truth, whatever you want to call it. We’ve been lying to everyone formonths! This isn’t even a real marriage and you?—”

I lower my head before my sadness is replaced with determination; Ihaveto save us.

“It was real to me. Georgia,you’rereal to me. We—we’resomething,” I say, my voice cracking as emotion clogs my throat, and I grab her hands.

Her chin wobbles, but she doesn’t shed a tear, not in front of me. That thought alone haunts me as memories of us in the kitchen all those months ago, cradling one another, cloud my mind.

“If we’re something, then you would’ve been straightforward from the beginning. You knew how much I wanted that internship, and you didn’t say aword. I literally started drinking that night because of the internship. I’m not saying that you had to put in a good word for me, but it would’vebeen nice to know that you’re Eden’s godson. Had I gotten in, we wouldn’t be married right now, and no, I’m not saying this because I regret marrying you, but you have to understand how I feel.”

I understand you.

She’s pulling away, slowly slipping through my fingers, and terror racks my body. I’m paralyzed as I look at her, and I can’t even recognize my own voice as I ask, “Are you leaving me?”

Her brows dip, and her expression softens before hardening like steel. “Leaving you? Derek, I fuckingloveyou! But I’m hurt, and right now I don’t know what to think, and it’skillingme. I just need space.”

I stop trying to grab her hands. I’ve never seen her like this—defeated and small. Georgia Adams is one of the strongest people I know, and I did this to her…

She loves me, and I didn’t even get the chance to tell her I love her more.

37.Georgia

There’sa horse wearing a cowboy hat winking at me. I grimace and stretch my mouth. The tears I’d let fall like Niagara earlier are dry and stuck to my skin like glue.

With a long, drawn-out sigh, I turn on the couch, my back to the door, and shudder as the air kicks on in the pool house. I don’t have a clue how long it’s been since I stormed out of Derek’s family home, and I feel a mixture of things. Embarrassment, for one, seeing as I stormed out of there in a fit of rage over what seemed to be a conversation about an outfit, when in reality I stormed out because life felt like it came crashing down on me. I’m freaking sad, and I’m a little bit turned on, which makes me angry not only at myself, but at Derek too.

“It was real to me. Georgia, you’re real to me. We—we’re something.”

I shudder as his words replay in my mind, a tingle of electricity shooting down my spine, and I groan.

I have got to get it together.

For the first time in my life, I told a man that I love him… Directly after he admitted to lying tome.

“I sure know how to pick ’em, don’t I?” I question aloud, rubbing a hand over my eyes, startling when a new voice chimes in.

“I don't know what that means, but I got a snack for us.” Delilah’s soft voice catches my attention. My breath gets stuck in my throat as the small girl trots over to me from the front door, a small vanilla cupcake in her hands.

She gives me a sweet smile, holding the cupcake out to me. I take it and thank her before eating the entire thing in one bite. Her little brown eyes widen like saucers as she watches me before she replicates my actions with her own cupcake.

We smile at one another's stuffed faces before laughing softly. I chew my cupcake and turn to her, “What’re you doing here, Deli Belly?”