he’d responded to her declaration with comments about emails, she stared back at him. She was about to speak when Alex Freeman and his wife strolled past with suitcases in hand. He paused when he saw Everly sitting with Asher.
“I hope despite your adventures you enjoyed the cruise, Daisy.”
“I did, and thank you.” She noticed his suitcases. “Are you off for the holidays?”
Alex frowned at Asher. “The entire crew is. The ship is going through maintenance, so we have two weeks free. Alice and I are heading to Rio for some Christmas fun.”
“The entire crew?” she asked. Asher hadn’t mentioned having any free time. This changed everything.
Alex strode off and Everly turned to Asher, excitement churning in her like an oil rig gusher. “Asher,” she said, tightening her hold around his hands. “Fly back with me. You said your brother has been wanting you to visit. And Chicago at Christmastime…It’s magical. All the lights and the festivities. And you can meet my family and taste my Grandma Ruth’s recipe for fudge. You like fudge, don’t you? Everyone does.”
Asher pulled his hand free. “I won’t be going to Chicago.”
“But…” She didn’t finish as it hit her like running face-first into a brick wall. Asher hadn’t wanted her to know about this break in his schedule. He’d purposely not told her.
If Asher thought she would ignore this, he was wrong. “You have a whole two weeks free, and—”
“Daisy, please,” he said stiffly, cutting her off. “Don’t do this.”
“Don’t do what?” she asked, her brain working at laser speed. She refused to believe he didn’t share her feelings. He was lying. He had to be. He’d insisted he wasn’t one to play with her heart, that he didn’t routinely fall into romantic relationships. She was the exception. And she’d believed him. He’d been sincere. Honest. He couldn’t have held her and kissed her without experiencing even a small part of what she did.
Shifting uncomfortably, Asher looked away as if he wasn’t sure what to say next. He’d put his foot in a big pile of regret and didn’t know how to back out of it without making an even bigger mess.
“I think you’re wonderful, Daisy, and I’ve grown fond of you.”
“You’re fond of me?” She hated that word. Fond. It sounded weak. Watered-down affection. He liked her the same way he liked dessert following dinner. Sparingly. In small doses.
Asher lowered his head as if the words were as difficult for him to say as they were for her to hear.
An awkward silence stretched between them as thick as concrete. Everly found it difficult to breathe.
Asher refused to look at her.
When she found she could speak again, she said, “I guess this means that everything you said was a lie—”
“No,” he said, cutting her off, “I meant every single word. Please accept that it’s better this way.”
“Better for whom? Better for you? Better for me?”
Squaring his shoulders, he looked at her then, his gaze intense. “You’ll go back to Chicago and be Everly again. I don’t know that woman, and I’m not entirely sure I would even like her.”
She flinched at his words. “I’m one and the same person, Asher. It doesn’t matter if I’m standing in front of hundreds of real estate brokers or milking the family cow. I can’t be anyone else but me…the very woman you’re looking at.”
“And I can’t be anyone else but myself,” he fired back. “I don’t fit in your world and you don’t fit in mine.”
He stared at her, his eyes intense and full of regret, as though pleading with her to understand.
“We could both try to keep these feelings alive, attempt a long-distance relationship,” he continued. “You in Chicago and me down here. We could write letters, email and text or video-chat when possible, even manage a few trips back and forth. But to what end?”
Everly opened her mouth, prepared to answer. Asher wasn’t finished, though, and seemed to have a lot more to say.
“A few weeks, months, maybe even a year from now, one of us would recognize the futility of it all. It might seem cruel to let you go now with nothing more than what we had these last two weeks. But eventually either you or I will accept that the only viable answer is to walk away. By doing it now, I’m saving us both the angst and heartache.”
Clenching her hands together to the point that she cut off the blood supply to her fingers, she glared at him.