Page 14 of Face Off

He waited.

I had spent months in therapy learning how to say things before they sharpened into anger. The process remained unnatural, irritating, and occasionally useful.

“I knew what I was walking away from,” I said. “Even then. I understood Charm wasn’t another relationship that ended because people stopped wanting each other. She was integral. I knew removing her would take pieces of me with her, and I still walked away.”

“Do you regret it?”

“A hundred times a day.”

Cade’s gaze moved toward me.

“Some mornings, I wake up reaching for her before I remember where I am. I see something she would like and grab my phone. I read a poem and hear the argument she’d make about it. Every good thing that happens has a place where telling her should be.” I flexed my right hand again. “I regret leaving every time I miss her. That doesn’t mean staying would’ve been right.”

“Do you still believe you couldn’t forgive her?”

“I know who I am. I know what I can get over, and I know what resentment turns me into when I pretend something didn’t break me.”

“You don’t resent her now.”

“No.”

“Then something changed.”

“Time changed it. Therapy changed it. Knowing she got help changed it.” I looked at him. “None of that changes what happened.”

“Did you expect it to?”

“No.”

“Do you want it to?”

The question tightened beneath my ribs.

“I want her healthy,” I said. “I want her happy. I want her business to become everything she hoped it would be. I want her to walk into that wedding knowing she belongs there without looking at anyone for permission.”

“That isn’t what I asked.”

“I know.”

“Still completely mind-fucked, then.”

I stared at him.

Cade nodded thoughtfully. “You’ve only developed better vocabulary for it.”

“Keep talking and I’ll make Bliss a widow before the ceremony.”

“That would solve the walking arrangement.”

“Easton would still find a reason to complain.”

“He always does.”

The rain finally started, scattering across the windshield before the wipers pushed it aside. Cade exited toward the city while buildings rose through the gray afternoon ahead.

The conversation could’ve ended there. Instead, he said, “Charm isn’t the same.”

“I know.”