“All of this is going to take time before you’re ready for a relationship again. You need time to figure out what you really want.”
“I know what I really want. How long do you think it would take me?”
“At least eighteen months,” Ian told her, and Maura’s jaw dropped.
“You think I need a year and a half to figure out that I’m in love with you and have been for the past three years, and that I can’t imagine the rest of my life without you in it? Ian,” Maura said, “have you ever known me to be a woman who wasn’t sure about what she wanted?”
He gave her a stubborn frown. “You’re asking if I can make a go of this with you now, and the answer has to be no.”
After all this time, the years, the grief, and now he was deciding he had to tell her no?
Maura straightened. Shoulders square. Chin high. Not accusing, not demanding. Not begging. “You’re going to let me walk away.”
“Yes.”
She swallowed her anger. Made herself calm. “When we are together, everything shines.”
“You’ll find someone else.”
“Of course I will. You think I can’t walk out that door right now and find someone? A dozen someones?” It should’ve sounded arrogant, but it was the truth. “I don’t want someone else. None of them will be you.”
He tried to laugh, to make a joke. “C’mon. You’ll have your pick.”
Maura wasn’t laughing. She moved around the table while he still sat. It gave her a little power, at least, standing over him this way. She made her face and voice cold because she wanted to be warm. “You don’t get to pick who makes you shine.”
And then she left him in his spotless kitchen, alone.
Also by Megan Hart
All the Lies We Tell
A Heart Full of Stars
Always You
Broken
Castle in the Sand
Clearwater
Crossing the Line
Deeper
Dirty
Everything Changes
Flying
Hold Me Close
Hurt the One You Love
Indecent Experiment
Lovely Wild
Naked
Passion Model
Precious and Fragile Things
Reawakened Passions
Ride with the Devil
Selfish is the Heart
Stranger
Stumble into Love
Switch
Tear You Apart
Tempted
The Darkest Embrace
The Favor
The Resurrected One: First Come the Storms
The Resurrected Two: And Then the Infection
The Resurrected Three: And After That…Resurrection
The Space Between Us
Unforgivable
Vanilla
About the Author
I was born and then I lived awhile. Then I did some stuff and other things. Now, I mostly write books. Some of them use a lot of bad words, but most of the other words are okay.
I can’t live without music, the internet, or the ocean, but I have kicked the Coke Zero habit. I can’t stand the feeling of corduroy or velvet, and modern art leaves me cold. I write a little bit of everything from horror to romance, and I don’t answer to the name “Meg.”
If you liked this book, please tell everyone you love to buy it. If you hated it, please tell everyone you hate to buy it.
Find me here!
www.meganhart.com
readinbed@gmail.com