Ignite (Cloverleigh Farms #6)(81)

She laughed. “He only likes it when we’re there. Want to talk to Luna?”

“Yes. I love you. Goodnight.”

“I love you too, Daddy. Night.”

Luna came on a few seconds later. “Daddy?”

“Yeah?”

“Winnie’s not gone yet, is she?”

I swallowed hard. “I don’t think so.”

“Okay good, because we want to give her a going-away gift. We saw something purrfect at the store,” she said with a giggle. “Will you take us to get it?”

“Yeah.” I closed my eyes, the ache of missing her already deep in my bones. “It will have to be Wednesday when I get you. I’m pretty sure she leaves the next day.”

“Okay.”

We chatted for a few more minutes, then said goodnight. I stayed outside for a little while, watching it grow darker.

If I hadn’t broken things off, Winnie and I would probably be together right now. Maybe I’d be helping her pack. Maybe we’d be eating dinner at my place. Maybe we’d be in bed, taking advantage of every last minute we had before she left.

My body warmed thinking about it, and I was tempted to go knock on her door. Apologize. Tell her the truth. Make her understand that I’d only lied to protect her—because that’s what I did when I loved someone. I protected them.

But in the end, I couldn’t bring myself to do it, and I went back inside alone.





Justin and I arrived at work Tuesday at the same time and parked next to each other. As soon as we got out of our cars, I held up my hands in surrender. “I know, I know. I’ll apologize to Bree.”

He nodded. “Good.”

“Does she hate me?”

“No. She feels bad. She thinks she said things that pissed you off so much, you’ll never speak to her again.”

“She did piss me off. But only because she knows how to push my buttons.”

“Sisters are good at that.” We started walking toward the station. “So what happened with Winnie?”

“We broke it off.”

“Mutual decision?”

I frowned. “Not exactly. She had it in her head that we could try long-distance or something.”

“And you really don’t want to?”

“No, Justin! I’m not her fucking high-school boyfriend. She’s not going away to college—she’s moving to another state. She took a job there.”

“Maybe she didn’t know you wanted her to stay.”

“There was no way I could’ve asked her to stay.”

“Why not?” Justin asked as we reached the building. “I told Bree I was going to marry her on our second date.”

“You guys are different.” I paused at the door without opening it, staring at my reflection in the glass. “It wouldn’t have worked for us. She’s too young for me. We’re at completely different stages of life. I’ve already done the marriage and family thing, and I fucked it up. Now I’m trying to be the best possible single dad I can be, and I’ve got no room in my life for anything else.”

“Okay.”

“Asking her to give up her dream job just to be with me when I can’t offer her the future she wants would have been unfair.”

“Okay.”

“It’s not because I’m scared.”

He hesitated. “Okay.”

“No matter what my sister says. It’s not because I’m scared. It’s because I’m strong.”

My brother-in-law remained silent.

I kept staring at myself in the glass. “I’m not in love with her. I don’t need her in my life. I’ll be fine without her.” I swallowed. “Eventually.”

“Okay, brother.” Justin put a hand on my shoulder. “Maybe you should go inside and scrub some toilets or something. It’ll take your mind off this.”

I grabbed the door handle and yanked it open.





Hallie grabbed the coffee mug off the shelf at the gift shop and held it up. “See Daddy? Isn’t it cute?”

It was cute. It had a cartoon of a cat with a thick Freddie Mercury mustache on it, wearing tight pants and a yellow jacket, one paw in the air, one holding a mic stand. Beneath the drawing it said Don’t stop meow. But I couldn’t even smile. “Yeah.”

“It’s so that she won’t forget us,” said Luna excitedly, bouncing around and knocking into things on the shelves. “Every day she can use her mug and think of us.”

I cleared my throat. “She’ll love it. Come on, before you break something.”

We paid for the mug and left the shop, wandering down the block toward the car. My feet felt heavy and slow as I dragged them through the fallen leaves on the sidewalk. A small moving truck had been parked in Winnie’s driveway all morning, and I’d been fucking miserable watching all her furniture disappear inside it.

“Can we bring it over to her when we get home, Daddy?” Luna asked, scuffing her heels through the crunchy brown and yellow leaves.

“If she’s there.”

“I hope she is!” Hallie hurried ahead to the car and tugged at the door handle. “Let’s hurry.”

When we pulled into the complex, we saw that Winnie’s garage door was open, and she was loading a suitcase into her trunk.