Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 59690 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59690 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
He closed his eyes and walked away from me. “You don’t understand my father.”
“I thought I was one of the few people who could perfectly understand the fucked up situation you’re in with your dad.”
“You went no contact years ago,” he argued, throwing a hand in my direction. “You gave up. You don’t have to deal with Owen. You haven’t been pandering to him for years. You said fuck it, and it was done.”
“Is that what you think? I made a deal with Owen for law school for you. Look at how well that worked out. Shouldn’t that be everything you need to know about making the same deal with your dad?”
“I’m not making the same deal,” he argued. “I’m making the opposite. I’m saying enough is enough. I’ve put in my time. It’s irreconcilable. I cannot work with him every day anymore. Not if he wants to play games with my relationship.”
“So, you’re going to give up on your dream for me?”
“That’s not—”
“It is,” I snapped. “That is exactly what’s happening.”
“Harley.”
He reached for me, and I backed up. I loved him. I loved him so much. But I could not deal with this right now. I couldn’t be the scapegoat to his anger with his dad. I wasn’t going to be the reason for any of this. He’d have to confront it for what it really was eventually. And if I was the reason, then we had a bigger problem in our relationship.
His hand dropped, and he looked hurt at my retreat. “Why are you so mad about this?”
“The fact that you don’t know is telling.”
He frowned. “Don’t do that. Don’t act like I should be able to read your mind.”
“I always thought you could before,” I said softly.
“Normally, we are on the same page.”
“Yeah.”
He ground his teeth together. “I thought you’d be pleased that I didn’t give in to my dad.”
“Chase, I hate your dad. I hate my dad. I want them to both suffer. What I don’t want is for you to make decisions without me.” I sighed. “I thought that was the point of being together. We were going to do this together.”
“We are doing this together. That’s why I brought you to meet my dad.”
“And now, you’re quitting your job because of me. Don’t you remember when I got into Harvard?”
“What does that have to do with this?”
“You told me to take you out of the situation. To look at Harvard without you or my dad or anything. Did I want it? Was this how I wanted things to go? You said it was too important for me to decide that I wanted to stay in Lubbock for you. I needed to decide what I actually wanted.”
“Yeah but—”
“This is just as important.”
“I mean, of course I want to work at the company. That’s what I’ve worked toward my whole life.” He crossed his arms. “But I can’t do it under his stipulations. I’m not giving you up for that.”
I took a deep breath. He was still too upset to see what was right in front of him, and I wasn’t getting through to him. I wanted to stay. I wanted to talk all of this out. I probably could. I could bang my head against the wall until we were both blue in the face, but he wouldn’t see what I was saying.
“You’re going to regret it, and you’re going to blame me,” I told him, throwing his words back in his face.
He winced at the words. “So be it.”
I closed my eyes at those words. That wasn’t going to work for me. I’d wanted to be with Chase for so long. The last couple of months had felt like a fever dream. So much Chase time. Everything was perfect.
But his immediate reaction worried me.
A gross overreaction to something that I wasn’t sure Arnold could even enforce. And if Chase went through with it, one day, he’d blame me. Just like he’d thought that I would blame him if I didn’t take the time to decide if I wanted to go to Harvard. But I’d taken that time, and now he needed it as well.
I shook my head. “That’s not okay with me. You know what? I’m going to go stay with Bailey tonight.”
“What?” he asked.
“Just take the time to think about it, Chase. We went longer in the past.”
Then, I grabbed my purse off of the table and walked out the door. My heart constricted painfully as I got into my Kia and pulled away. Had I made the right choice?
All I’d wanted for the last three years was Chase Sinclair, and now, I was putting that all on the line. But I wouldn’t be the reason he ruined his life, and he didn’t seem to see what the problem was.
16
HARLEY
“Look what the cat dragged in,” Bailey said when I appeared at Whitt’s house later that night.