Ready for You (Ready #3)(71)

I walked back into the kitchen for a refill.

“I didn’t have to. He was standing right there, and it’s not like she ran after me when I bailed.”

I unscrewed the cap from the half-empty bottle and bent the tip toward my glass, but I was stopped. Tiny fingers wrapped around the bottle as judgmental blue eyes bored into me.

“Now, you’re starting to piss me off,” I said, pushing off the counter.

I dumped my glass into the sink where it joined several others. There were no plates, just lonely empty glasses. I guessed it had been a while since I’d eaten. Whiskey and coffee had become my new staples.

“Good. At least you’ll be feeling something other than sorry for yourself!”

I swiveled my head, the alcohol now doing its job of making everything feel loose and numb, and looked at her. “She f**king destroyed me!” I roared. “Again!”

Feeling weak, I braced myself against the counter and hung my head in defeat. I felt Leah’s warm touch as she rubbed my back.

“You need to talk to her, Garrett. Give her a chance. Please. There are so many things you don’t understand, so many things that aren’t my place to tell you. You can’t end a relationship like this, Garrett. This is your life. Don’t walk away from something based on assumptions and miscommunications. You both deserve more than this. So, please, go talk to her.”

I lost the will to fight her, so I agreed. If she thought this would fix everything, I was happy to prove her wrong.

In the morning, I’d be knocking on Mia’s door for the last time.

This time, I was saying good-bye.

~Mia~

I’d let him walk away.

I had just stood there as he stormed out the door, leaving me and my mangled heart behind.

Over the last week, I’d spent every waking minute reliving those nightmarish moments. I’d been joyously happy in those brief seconds before we stepped in my house, laughing and joking with Garrett after we’d spent a beautiful night at the river, and then everything had shattered when we found Aiden standing in my living room.

I should have known he would come for me after the endless phone calls, the flowers, and then the letters I’d refused to acknowledge. Without bothering to open them, I’d shoved them in a box that I hid in the back of my closet. Maybe if I had read them, I would have realized his intentions.

I’d been so angry with Aiden as I watched through blurry, tear-filled eyes when Garrett ran out of the house, believing I was the worst sort of person on the planet.

“Why did you say that?” I screamed.

“I don’t know, Amelia. I saw you with another man, and I panicked. I’m sorry,” Aiden answered, his brow furrowed as he slumped down on the couch.

“We are not engaged,” I hissed.

“Only because you ran out on me the night I proposed.”

Folding my arms over my chest, I huffed out in frustration, “And you figured that was a maybe?”

He flinched at my harsh words, and I regretted them at once. Aiden had never been anything less than charming, wonderful, and giving. He deserved so much more than a woman who ran out on a romantic proposal and never returned.

“I didn’t know what to think. You just disappeared.”

I hung my head in shame as more tears etched a path down my cheek. “I’m sorry, Aiden. I just…I’m sorry. I couldn’t accept.”

He nodded, leaning forward to run his long fingers through his short dusty-blond hair. His dark brown eyes met mine, and he took a ragged deep breath.

“Why, Amelia? Why? Is it because of him, the guy that was here?”

Even though my head had screamed for me to go to Garrett, I’d spent the entire evening with Aiden, talking until the sun came up. I’d needed him to understand me—the real me, the one I’d never shared with him. So, for the first time since I’d met him, I’d opened myself up and told him everything.

I’d met Aiden right after college and found him to be funny and easy to get along with. He was a few years older than me, and he’d been just starting his career in law while I had been just starting mine in accounting. He had been completely immersed in his career, and from the beginning, our relationship had been casual. He’d told me a wife and kids weren’t in the cards for him, and those were terms I could happily agree to.

After losing Garrett, I had given up on the idea of marriage. It wasn’t something I wanted with anyone else. So, when Aiden had asked me to move in with him a year later, I’d agreed, knowing it would be the furthest our relationship would ever go. I’d thought I would never be pressured for more. I would never have to share more of myself than I was willing.

Over the last year though, things had changed. Aiden’s career had settled. He had become a partner in a firm, and he no longer needed to prove himself by working to death. When he’d started looking at me differently, tenderly, I’d known we were headed for trouble. His fingers would linger on my ring finger, and I’d find him stealing glances at me when he thought I wasn’t looking.

The night he had proposed, he’d pulled out every stop. He’d rented out an entire restaurant, lit hundreds of candles, and decorated every surface with flowers. It had been every woman’s fantasy—every woman but me. To me, it had been a nightmare. The only proposal I’d ever wanted was an impromptu declaration of love on a river bank with a tiny diamond ring and a boy who had stolen my heart when I was still a child.