A Beautiful Lie (Playing with Fire #1)(133)

Garrett was amazed at the nerve Milo had to say something like that to Parker. It brought back so much jealousy that Garrett almost couldn’t see straight.



“Milo. I don’t love you. Not that way. Not anymore. Maybe not ever.”



Garrett hated hearing the sadness in Parker’s voice. He hated that on top of everything, she had to deal with Milo doing what he could to win her back

The silence on the recording ended abruptly with a loud, disbelieving laugh from Milo.

“Brady, that’s enough. What the f*ck does this have to do with anything? I don’t want to hear this,” Garrett complained as he turned away, not wanting to listen to anymore. He didn’t like feeling jealous. He didn’t like remembering what it felt like when he believed Parker would choose Milo over him.

“I don’t give a shit whether or not you WANT to hear this. Don’t take another f*cking step, Garrett. You NEED to hear this,” Brady threatened as he fast forwarded the recording a little and turned the volume up on his phone.



“I’m not stupid you know?” Milo’s voice rang out.



“I saw the two of you. You were holding hands when you got here. Whatever you’ve done with him while I was gone, it’s okay. I don’t care. You were lonely and he was there. Now that I’m back, you don’t have to do that anymore.”



Garrett growled in anger at the words Milo spoke.



“Milo, listen to what you’re saying?” Parker’s soft, calm voice took over. “Nothing is okay between us and it never will be. I love Garrett. He’s not just someone I passed the time with after you were gone. I know this isn’t going to be easy for you to hear, but I’ve loved him from the first moment I saw him. It’s always been Garrett and it always will be. You were my best friend, and I thought I was doing the right thing by staying with you and planning a future with you. But it wasn’t fair to either of us when my heart always belonged to someone else.



Brady had clicked off the recording and both men stood in the quiet parking garage staring at one another.

It had taken everything in side of Garrett not to break down, scream in rage, or punch a hole in something. All this time, all these years he’d loved Parker, and it turned out she’d loved him right back. He hated himself more than ever for what he’d done to her. He had thought her declarations of love in the Dominican were because of the heat of the moment, not because it was something she’d felt from the very first time they’d met. He'd always known it would take a miracle for her to forgive him for letting her down.



“I deserve every bit of anger you have and more,” Garrett told Parker, bringing himself out of his thoughts away from the recording Brady had let him hear. “You have no idea how much I wish I could go back and change everything.”

Parker laughed and shook her head sadly.

“But you can’t. You can’t change anything, Garrett. It was always you. I knew from the very first moment that I could love you like no other, that you would make me feel things that scared the hell out of me. I tried to push them aside, I tried to do everything I could to ignore those feelings, but I couldn’t. They were always there, always lurking no matter what I did to escape them. I never wanted to love so desperately like my parents did. I never wanted to get lost in someone and forget who I was. But I did it without even knowing it was happening. I never, for one minute regretted what happened between us in the Dominican. I never doubted you or what you felt for me. But you did. I gave up all of my beliefs and all of my fears about love and jumped in head first. For you. But you walked away.”

Garrett brought his hand up over his mouth, the guilt and shame overwhelming him. Out of everyone in her life to let Parker down, he never though his name would be added to that list. He swallowed the lump in his throat and knew it was time to stop being a fool. It was time to stop the lies and the pretending.

He let his hand drop back to his side and took a step closer to Parker. He couldn’t stand being so far away from her. Even if she turned him down, told him she hated him and kicked him out, he wasn’t leaving there without trying.

“This one day, a sweet, beautiful girl walked into a coffee shop and my world came to a standstill. She was shy and had a smile that could light up a room. But there was something in her eyes that made me want to take away all of her pain. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t speak…I just wanted to know her. But I had a friend who had a rough life. He was always getting pushed aside and struggling to be happy. I saw him make that beautiful girl laugh, and I knew I needed to step back. I knew I needed to let him grab onto that happiness once and for all.”

Parker stood unmoving and unblinking as Garrett told his story and laid his heart out on the table.

“I stepped aside and I watched them grow together and love together and each and every moment it tore my heart in two. I wanted it to be me. I wanted to be the one to love her. So I did,” Garrett said with a shrug of his shoulders. “She just never knew it. I thought that friend was good for her, would treat her better than I ever could, would love her as much as she deserved. I did everything I could to get her face out of my mind, to get my feelings for her to disappear, but nothing worked. Nothing could ever stop me from loving her and wishing she was mine.