Not this time.
Every single time he’d tried to take her out for dinner, a movie, or even a fucking walk, the little bastard was there, but not tonight. Tonight, he’d made damn sure that the little bastard wasn’t joining them.
“Really?” Matt asked, leaning back against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest as he considered him. “Does Joey know this?”
“Why?” he asked as he knocked on her door.
“Because she’s not here.”
“Where is she?” he asked, already heading for the stairs.
“No clue,” Matt said as Reed grabbed his keys and headed for the door.
“Shit,” Reed said as he headed out the door and-
“I haven’t thanked you for watching over my sister, have I?” Jackson, who had made himself scarce since the camping trip, said, pushing away from the house where he’d been waiting for him.
“Are we still playing this game?” Reed asked, shifting his attention to his best friend just as Jackson’s lips pulled up into a shit-eating grin and confirming his suspicions.
“I guess there’s no point anymore, is there?”
“How long have you known?” Reed asked, heading for his truck.
“That you were in love with my sister?” Jackson asked, chuckling as he joined him. “Probably before you did.”
“Why the pretense?” Reed asked as he unlocked his truck and climbed in.
“Because I love my sister,” Jackson said as he climbed in the passenger side and sat back with a heavy sigh.
“Meaning?” Reed asked, not bothering to start his truck as he waited for whatever was coming.
“Joey never cared enough about the little pricks that she’d dated in the past to hide them.”
“Our situation is a little more complicated,” Reed said, giving Jackson a pointed look that had his best friend chuckling.
“True,” Jackson conceded with a nod, “which is why I didn’t interfere because Joey doesn’t do complicated. She likes straight forward relationships without drama or a chance in hell of it going anywhere, but you don’t.”
“No, I don’t,” he agreed, wondering why he’d ever bothered trying to lie to himself.
Because he’d wanted her and would have agreed to anything to have her.
Absolutely fucking anything.
“Plus, Joey would never do anything to hurt you again. She’s not cruel.”
“No, she’s not,” Reed murmured in agreement because she was probably the kindest woman that he’d ever met.
“Which of course makes me wonder what kind of life you can offer my sister.”
“I’m planning on asking her to marry me,” he said because he’d realized that he couldn’t live without her.
“I figured that much out for myself, but what I haven’t figured out is what kind of life Joey is going to have here,” Jackson said, making him frown.
“Anything she wants.”
“There’s nothing for her there, Reed, and we both know it. Joey needs more than a part-time job substituting at a public school. She needs a hell of a lot more than this town can give her. I don’t want Joey to end up like your mother,” Jackson said quietly as Reed felt his words slam into him.
“My mother never regretted marrying my father,” he bit out.
“No, she didn’t, but she gave up everything to be with him and I don’t want that for Joey. Not after everything she’s been through,” Jackson said as Reed rubbed his hands roughly down his face.
“She’ll suffocate in a place like this, Reed.”
“I would never let that happen.”
“Really? And how exactly are you going to stop it from happening, Reed?” Jackson asked, leveling a hard look on him. “Joey will wither away in a place like this and we both know it.”
“I’m not going to let that happen,” Reed said, feeling sick to his stomach as Jackson’s words settled in the pit of his stomach as he realized that Jackson was right.
“Even if that means letting her go?” Jackson asked as he opened his door and Reed realized that he might not have a choice.
Not if he wanted to keep his promise.
Chapter 45
“What the hell am I doing?” she asked, dropping her hands away with a tired sigh and glanced back at the email that was waiting for her to figure out what she was going to do.
She couldn’t believe that she was even considering doing this. She should just go home and let Reed know that it was over, but she wasn’t ready to do that. She hadn’t been ready two months ago and she wasn’t ready now. She just wanted a little more time to figure everything out.
She’d considered asking to finish out her sabbatical, but she didn’t have any reason to do that. She’d already sent her paper in, she wasn’t taking any classes to enhance her degree, and she doubted that they’d be willing to let her stay because she’d fallen in love with Reed.
That left her with two choices.
She could tell Reed that she was going back and try to enjoy what little time they had left, which of course was the smarter choice, or she could hit Send and throw everything that she’d been working for away on the off-chance that this was going somewhere. She just wished that she knew what she was supposed to do, she thought as she shifted her attention back to the stack of essays waiting for her attention. She was hoping to distract herself from the mess that she’d made of her life only to frown as she glanced over to her left and found Reed leaning against her classroom door, watching her, and looking so incredibly handsome that it took her a moment to realize that he was talking.
“I was with your grandmother when she found out about the accident,” Reed said as he pushed away from the door and walked into the room. “Did you know that?”
“No,” she said softly as she watched as he walked around her classroom, taking in all the changes that she’d made.
“She was helping me with my homework when the call came,” he said as he shifted his attention to the replica map of the Thirteen Colonies on the back wall. “I remember watching all the blood drain out of her face when they told her about your mother, but she didn’t cry. Not until she found out that you’d been in the accident too and that you might not make it.”
He paused by the poster of the Mayflower Compact to send her a curious glance. “You remember the accident, don’t you?”
“Yes,” she said hollowly as her grip tightened on the edge of the desk and she thought that she might be sick.
Nodding, he returned his attention to the posters that she’d lined the room with. “She wouldn’t stop crying. I tried everything to make it better. I broke out her secret stash of chocolate from above the fridge. I promised her that everything would be okay. I hugged her and kissed her, but nothing worked. She wouldn’t stop crying and, at that moment, I hated you,” Reed said, shaking his head with a sigh as he ran his fingers over the books that she had stacked on the windowsill.
“I didn’t even know you, but I hated you for hurting her like that. It didn’t matter to me that you were only a baby and that you’d lost your mother, I hated you and I swore that I would never let you make her cry again,” he said as he shifted his attention to the large globe that she’d helped herself to out of storage.
“So, you watched over me,” she said weakly.
“So, I watched over you,” he agreed with a nod as he continued making his way to the back of the room. “Do you know what I promised your grandmother?”
“No,” she said, watching him move as a feeling of foreboding trickled down her spine.
“I promised to look after you,” he said, trailing his fingers over the back of one chair, “and make sure that you were safe,” and then another, “and happy.”
“I am happy,” she said, watching as he absently nodded and moved his attention to the bookshelves that Matt had installed at the back of the room for her.