NICE GIRL TO LOVE (THE COMPLETE THREE-BOOK COLLECTION)(114)

Skylar ignored Brian and shuffled forward, tears running down her cheeks. “I didn’t mean it, Abby. I don’t hate you.”

Abby’s legs almost gave out. Hearing Skylar say the three pain-shredded words back at Connor’s house had blown a gaping hole in her chest. “It’s okay if you do, kiddo,” she managed, meaning it even as she said it, “I’d hate me too right about now.”

“I swear I don’t. It’s just... You’ve been the only mom I’ve had my whole life, Abby. When I heard you and Uncle Connor talking about a new family—”

“Skylar, what you heard wasn’t the full story.”

“I know that now.” Skylar nodded in that way she did sometimes whenever life forced her to grow up faster than she needed to, faster than it had any right to expect her to. “You would’ve been as great a mom to him as you’ve been to me,” she said softly, looking up with eyes brimming with more grief than Abby had ever seen in them.

And just like that, she felt the last paper-thin dam holding back the rest of her emotions crumble.

“Abby, I don’t think you should give up on those dreams you were making with Uncle Connor just for me,” whispered Skylar as she gazed down at the scar on her ring finger, rubbing her thumb over it. “I’m not stupid. I know you guys think I may have JHD. And I know it’s starting super early, so I might...” Her lower lip quivered and she dropped her eyes back to the ground, “...so I might never get to fall in love before I—”

Abby covered her hand over Skylar’s, covered the scar and everything it represented. “Don’t talk like that. Don’t even think it. You are going to have an incredible life, you hear me? Whether you have JHD or not.” Never before had she felt so helpless, wished so hard that she could make good on her words.

When Skylar’s tiny frame shook with silent sobs, Abby nearly lost it. There was no way she could do this. She couldn’t just walk away and effectively end the family they’ve built over the years.

“You have to do it,” whispered Skylar, as if reading her mind. “Even if I don’t want you to.” Voice still teeming with emotion, Skylar clutched her hands to her mouth and ran to her room.

Abby tried to run after her, to tell her she wouldn’t, couldn’t ever leave. But Brian held her back. “Let her go. You have to let her go, Abby...just like she and I have to let you go.”

Every last wound in her heart, even the ones she’d thought were long stitched up and healed, burst open at the seams in that instant. She was losing everything she’d been holding on to.

All over again.

“Don’t look at me like that, sweetheart. You were never ours to keep. Not really. And I’m not anywhere near as strong as you think I am. If you don’t leave now, there’s every chance in the world that I’ll turn weak and let you stay. Let you give up everything for me and Skylar—your career, the man you’re in love with, and the family you’re destined to have...with Connor”

Connor.

Abby felt another sharp, crushing ache in her chest then at the thought of not being with him for the rest of her life. A different pain, but just as devastating.

How in the world was she supposed to make this decision?

“Even though you’ve always fit in my life and my soul, I don’t know that I was ever that counterpart for you. Not the way Connor is.” Brian pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. “Skylar and I, we love you enough to let you go. But we also love you enough that we’d let you stay as well. So don’t make us have to choose. Because that’s your choice to make. You just have to let your heart choose, Abby.”

“Let your heart choose the right man for you.”




Abby spent a day locked away in her house thinking about…everything. Everything she felt, everything she was afraid to imagine, and everything she hadn’t yet dared to say aloud.

To the one person who needed to hear it the most.

She smoothed open the note Connor had sent her all those months ago, and then picked up the short note she’d written out that morning.

Taking a deep breath, she picked up her phone and started texting, restarting over a dozen times because her fingers wouldn’t stop shaking. When she was done, her thumb hovered over the send button for a long while. Afraid. Brian was right; allowing her heart to love was a choice.

She hit send.

Then waited.

And waited.

She paced her living room all evening and into the night, feeling her heart drum in her chest every time she saw a pair of headlights come up her street.

Only to have it nearly stop completely when he didn’t come.

She shut her eyes and tried to stop herself from doing this. From torturing herself.

She’d made her choice. For better or worse. Risky or not.

But each passing minute on the clock was another ticking flick of doubt, another stab in her heart warning her that perhaps the one she’d chosen was going to be a stubborn noble ass and not allow her to make that choice.

The loud knocking at her door had her eyes flying open, her pulse racing with hope as she went to turn the knob.

“Are you kidding me with this text message, woman?” came the thundering, emotion-laden greeting.

Tears ran down her face and an almost hysterical silent laugh bubbled out of her.