Lola & the Millionaires: Part One (Sweet Omegaverse #2)(69)

“That would be just—” I fumbled, and Zane nodded, wide eyed.

“I know, killer. But lips sealed, yeah? I mean, we don’t even know if it would ever happen, right?”

“Right, totally, lips sealed,” I said, miming my lips zipped shut.

God, I was lucky Zane didn’t know I was in a relationship with Rake and Leo. There was no way he would’ve brought this to me. Or maybe it would’ve been better if he had known and never said anything. Now I had to decide what to do.





Twenty-Two





Matthieu





“Do you like the wine?”

Carolyn hummed and nodded. Of course she did; it was her favorite. That’s why I’d ordered it for dinner. I was just searching for some way of starting a conversation with my suddenly silent girlfriend. I scanned the restaurant for the third time since we’d sat down.

It wasn’t a recent development that Carolyn and I had started to run out of things to say to one another. That’d been going on for almost a year. But I’d considered us comfortable up until…

Lola.

No, until the dinner party really. I could admit that I’d been short with Carolyn, insisting on taking her home, away from Lola before she tripped into another sensitive subject. But I was doing my best to make up for the rocky weekend. Favorite flowers, favorite restaurant, favorite wine—minus the Diet Coke.

“How’s the symphony?” I asked.

Carolyn hummed again, swirling the wine in her glass. Oh good, she wanted me to suffer in silence. Perhaps less of a punishment than she thinks, I thought, frowning at myself for the bitterness. If Carolyn didn’t want to dive into the latest gossip of the Metropolitan Symphony’s finest where she was first chair cellist, then I was officially in the dog house.

“Caro,” I murmured, leaning across the table, my hand outstretched between us in offering. I needed to make the effort, didn’t I? And not a half-hearted one.

Green eyes slanted down to my palm, and I prepared myself for another chastising hum. Carolyn sighed, and her free hand lifted from her lap, settling over mine. Her eyes flicked up to mine and I smiled.

“I think it’s time, don’t you, Matt?” Carolyn murmured without returning my smile.

My brow furrowed. Time? “I…” I shook my head, missing her meaning, although a slow dread trickled cooly down my spine, some subconscious part of me aware of what was coming.

“I do…I do love you,” she said slowly.

Time for what? Not marriage, surely? She couldn’t stand Rake, and she knew I would never leave my pack.

“It’s just that I don’t really need you,” Carolyn said, my spinning thoughts grinding to a halt. “And I think that you need to be needed. Or that you want badly to be needed, at least.”

“I’m…I’m an alpha,” I said shrugging and staring back at her. “It’s in my nature, Caro.”

She nodded. “It’s just…Rake is so blasé, I kind of assumed that wasn’t something you looked for in a partner. But I think I need to be needed too. And that’s just not what we are to one another anymore, if we ever were.”

I sat back in the deep booth in Carolyn’s favorite corner of her favorite restaurant, staring at a glass of wine I didn’t even really care for.

“You want to break up,” I said. Slow on the uptake these days, aren’t you, old man?

“You’re always going to be a dear friend, Matt. I’m not angry, and I do care for you. It’s just taken me this long to realize that what we have…”

“Isn’t enough,” I said, looking up at her.

Carolyn’s shoulders squared, and I shut my mouth. She needed to say these things. And for the sake of her peace of mind, it was probably better if I didn’t mention feeling the same way for a long time.

“No, it’s not,” Carolyn said, nodding and taking another sip from her glass of wine.

The waiter would come back to take our order soon. Would we sit here together and eat a last supper, or call it over by the end of our glasses? I might’ve preferred to get up and walk out now, but that was just my bruised ego and I was pretty sure I could do better than a display that would leave Carolyn embarrassed and holding the check.

“I’m sorry you didn’t find what you were looking for between us,” I said, hoping it was a diplomatic version of my thoughts.

“I did. I really did, and then I guess I wanted more.”

Yes, that was it exactly. I wanted more too, I’d just gotten complacent. And truth be told, I was never very good at splitting up with women. Too afraid of their tears, or too disappointed in myself for causing them. But you could still cause someone pain by trying to hold things together. Carolyn was doing us a mercy.

I glanced at Carolyn and noted with relief that tears were not an issue at the moment.

“I hope you find what you’re looking for too,” Carolyn said, a wavering smile on her lips.

I opened my mouth, maybe to be gallant and say that I had been happy in our relationship, and she shook her head.

“Don’t lie to be sweet, Matt.” Her eyes narrowed slightly, and the sharper Carolyn appeared. “I understand why that girl falls into your pack so neatly where I never did.”