Sweet Harmony (Harmony Falls #1) - Elizabeth Kelly Page 0,98
year, I’ve realized just how much. I want to try again.”
She smiled up at him, her face soft and warm, and rubbed his back. “Let’s try again, sweetheart.”
“I’m with Kira now,” he said.
“You’ve known her what? Two months? She doesn’t know you the way I do. She never will. She hasn’t been through what we have. Don’t let an infatuation with her ruin our chance to try again.”
“It’s too late,” he said.
“It isn’t. Think about how happy your mom would be if we started dating again. You have the chance to make up for disappointing her the way you did. Don’t you want that, Connor? I know how much it hurts you that your parents are unhappy with how your life turned out. You can fix that. Come back to me and make your parents proud of you again.”
He stiffened, his hand squeezing onto hers until she gasped. “Connor, ouch.”
He released her hand, staring down at her as the back of his neck grew hot and a fire burned in his belly. “You think the only way I can make my parents proud is by dating you?”
“They love me,” Lisa said. “They know that I’m good for you. You could move back home, open your own practice here in Willington. We’ll get married and give your mom a couple grandchildren. We’ll be happy together, just like we were before the accident.”
“I don’t love you anymore,” he said.
Anger flashed in her eyes. “You don’t mean that. You’ve loved me since you were fifteen years old, Connor MacMillan.”
“I don’t love you now.” His voice was slow and deliberate. “I have a life outside of this town, and maybe it isn’t the life I planned, but it’s my life and I’m happy. I’m happy with Kira.”
“She’s isn’t right for you,” she said.
“She’s perfect and I love her,” he said.
She froze in his arms, the sneer transforming her face from beautiful to cold and ugly. “Fine. Go be with your stupid Falls girl. Let’s just hope that you don’t fuck up her life the way you fucked up mine.”
Heat flooded his face, bile bubbled in his belly, and for one brief moment he thought he would throw up. He swallowed thickly, staring at Lisa as she gave him a defiant look.
“There you are,” he said. “I wondered when the real Lisa would make an appearance.”
He pushed away from her and headed toward Kira. She was standing at the table and, ignoring Ethel, he held his hand out to her. “Time to go.”
“All right.” She took his hand and he led her toward the door.
“Connor? Where are you going?” Gina was approaching them.
“We’re leaving. I’ll call you later,” Connor said.
He walked faster, ignoring the pain in his knee. He pushed open the door of the rental hall and stepped out into the cool night air. Holding Kira’s hand, he walked away from his past without a second look back.
* * *
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I was engaged to Lisa.” Connor paced in the hotel room as Kira sat on the edge of the small loveseat.
They’d decided to rent a room for the night, rather than drive back to Harmony Falls, and he was regretting that decision now. He wanted to be back in Kira’s home, in her bed and between her legs and not thinking about his hometown or Lisa or his parents’ disappointment. The guilt was always stronger when he was here, he could feel it in the very molecules in the air, and it was threatening to drown him.
“It seems like there’s a lot that you didn’t tell me,” Kira said. “Or your best friend. Why didn’t you tell Lucas we were dating for real now?”
He sat down next to her, relieved when he reached for her hand and she didn’t pull away. “I’m sorry. Not telling Lucas wasn’t intentional, it just slipped my mind.”
He studied their linked hands. “I have a lot of baggage when it comes to this place and I didn’t want to burden you with it. Especially since Lisa doesn’t mean anything to me anymore. Being engaged to her was just a stupid mistake that I’d like to forget.”
“Ethel told me about your baseball career,” she said.
He muttered a curse and stared down at their linked hands.
“You should have told me that,” she said. “Why didn’t you?”
“Because I fucked up,” he said. “I had a chance to be somebody and I fucked it up. I’m ashamed of that.”