If You Were Mine (The Sullivans #5)(73)

No one had ever said those words to Zach before.

Because he hadn’t let them.

Heather had shared every last secret with him, but he’d withheld his. And now she thought he didn’t love her, when the truth was that he loved her with everything he had.

“He left you with no warning.” Zach fought for the words to explain something that been so clear to him since he was seven years old, but was suddenly growing fuzzy. “I can’t do that to her.”

“Do you think knowing your dad was going to die would have changed the way I felt about him? Do you think I would have stopped myself from loving him?” She didn’t wait for his answer before saying, “If anything, I would have been absolutely furious with him for thinking he needed to protect me from my own feelings. To have missed out on the years we had together would have been far worse than losing him too early.”

Everything Zach had ever thought to be true shifted around inside of him as he looked down at the ring in his hand.

He’d had everything he could have ever wanted in Heather. A lover. A best friend. A partner who wasn’t afraid to give him the kick in the ass he often—usually—needed.

Hadn’t he known from the start that she was different?

And that a love as sweet as hers was something you held on to, no matter what?

Unless, of course, you happened to be the world’s biggest fool.

He closed the box with a snap before shoving it into the pocket of his jeans. “Thanks for the ring, Mom.”

“You’re welcome, honey.” His mother gave him another hug. “Something tells me it’s going to fit her perfectly.”

Chapter Thirty-two

Heather waved the colorful rope at Atlas, but his ears barely perked up even though they were in the middle of the park and it was a beautiful day.

“You need to snap out of it.” She put the rope down and sat on the grass beside her Great Dane. “Your whole world doesn’t begin and end with Cuddles.” At the sound of the puppy’s name, he raised his dark eyebrows with hope. “No, she isn’t coming here today.”

No doubt, Cuddles was at Mary Sullivan’s house for Chase and Chloe’s baby shower. Lori had called and left a message with the invitation, but Heather could only imagine how awkward it would be for everyone if she attended the family party.

When Atlas sadly lowered his big head back onto his paws, she said, “Don’t you remember, you were a perfectly fine dog before her? You’re going to be okay. It will just take a little time, that’s all. Time heals everything. That’s what everyone always says.”

She stroked his soft fur as she looked out at the other people in the park. All happy couples, of course.

Refusing to acknowledge the pain zinging through her, the same way she’d been working to ignore the hollow ache in the center of her chest all week, she told Atlas, “You still have me. I still have you. We don’t need anybody else. And just because those were the greatest two weeks of our lives, doesn’t mean anything. We’re going to be awesome again, just you and me.”

She really did suck at lying. Just like Zach had pointed out that first night in her office when he’d brought her pizza and she’d already wanted him—and liked him—more than she should.

The truth was that she felt anything but awesome. Especially when what stretched out before her was an endless rinse-and-repeat of work and faking smiles for her friends and a bed that had never felt so empty.

Atlas missed his best friend terribly and he’d been sluggish all week. So had she.

Because she missed the man who had become her best friend.

In the span of two weeks, Zach Sullivan hadn’t just managed to get into her pants...he’d charmed his way into her heart. Even worse, his laughter and warmth had taken up residence in her soul.

Just as Atlas couldn’t seem to move on from Cuddles, she hadn’t even come close to shaking herself free of the puppy’s temporary owner.

The worst part about their breakup, though, was that as the days crept by and the dust settled around her bruised heart, she couldn’t help feeling that she’d let him down.

Those first few nights she’d hated herself for thinking she was different, that she could be the one woman a man like Zach could actually fall in love with. But that had been anger, and pride, spinning her wheels. Because regardless of the way the awful scene had played out between them, she couldn’t deny that he’d been hurting.

And that was why he’d let her go.

Okay, so maybe love hadn’t been enough for them...at least, not in that crucial moment of making the choice between staying and going, between keeping and giving away. But could it be? If she gave it another chance and stayed this time, to push past his walls and find out what had hurt him so badly?

Atlas’s sighs turned to snores as he let the warm sun and her hand on his back lull him to sleep. Heather lay down, her head on his back, and closed her eyes. What she wouldn’t do for an hour of restful sleep.

She took in the smells of leaves and fresh-cut grass, the sounds of birds chirping overhead, the laughter from strangers all around her. But instead of feeling a sense of peace at the soothing sounds and sensations, she saw her father’s face in her mind’s eye

Heather found herself watching a seventeen-year-old girl confronting her father with his lies. The girl was so brave, so strong, as the man she had to thank for her dark hair, her long fingers, had laughed in her face as he told her that what she’d found out about his secret life on the road wasn’t true, as he swore she and her mother meant everything to him.