moving in the new direction I’m hoping to take until he met you in the bar.”
“He’s not a fan of mine.”
“Understatement.”
“Because he sees how much you care about me?” He wasn’t throwing it in her face, he was trying to let the reality of it settle in his mind in a new way.
Her eyes narrowed and she crossed her arms at her chest.
Nope. Not looking at her breasts.
That road led to doom. Right?
Yes.
No?
“He wants me all to himself. Which at first sounds like a good thing, but in reality, it’s made things a bit difficult.”
“Are you sleeping with him?” His hands fisted with the thought of that ass putting his hands on her. Tate never liked thinking of anyone with her. It used to be easy to ignore. Usually because he went off with someone of his own. But now . . . the urge to slam his fist into something—preferably Clint’s face—overwhelmed him.
“That’s none of your business. I don’t ask about the women you’re sleeping with, do I?”
No. She never asked. She listened when he talked about other women, gave him advice, and occasionally weighed in with her opinion on someone, but they never talked about sex.
I’m a dick.
He winced with the gut punch that came with that thought.
He didn’t want to hear about her love life. Why the hell did he discuss his with her?
Because getting her, a woman’s, opinion helped a lot in most situations. Because he was a dude who accepted he’d never figure women out.
But he wanted to understand Liz better. Especially if it kept her in his life.
But he’d been the ass who’d known how much she cared about him and never considered how she felt discussing one of his girlfriends.
“If he’s that threatened by our friendship, maybe he’s not the guy for you.”
“That’s for me to decide, not you,” she snapped.
Tate offered his opinion anyway because he couldn’t seem to hold his tongue about Clint. “I don’t like him.”
“Why? You’ve never cared about anyone else I dated.”
“None of them ever prompted Declan to ask me if I just wanted to keep you all to myself.”
She did that thing where she went statue still again.
“He thinks I have deeper feelings for you than I want to admit.” Why not lay it out there and see what she thought?
“How did you answer him?”
“I couldn’t.” He went with the truth and didn’t even hint that his thoughts lately had slid on the scale from No Way to Maybe to sliding ever closer to a Yes when it came to dating her.
Liz’s green eyes shone bright with unshed tears and a lump formed in his throat because the last thing he ever wanted to do was make her cry. “Then it’s as it’s always been.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“If you felt that way about me, Tate, you’d know it. You don’t. You never have. And that’s okay.”
His stomach dropped, because he didn’t think she was right, and he might actually have some real, deep feelings for her. “It’s complicated.”
She shook her head. “No, it’s not. It’s yes you do, or no you don’t. You love me in a different way.”
He’d loved her as his friend forever. He’d never stop.
“That’s why we’ve always been friends. I hope that never changes. But I need a little space to explore other options.”
“Clint’s another option?” That didn’t sound like the right thing for Liz.
Her lips scrunched into a pout. “Not all of us get the one we want.”
“It sounds like you’re settling, and you deserve a hell of a lot better than that.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know where things are going with Clint—”
“Don’t you think if he was the one, you’d know that by now?”
Anger flashed in her eyes. “See, you did answer Declan’s question.”
This time, he went stock-still.
The tears in Liz’s eyes spilled over and rolled down her cheeks, tearing his heart in half.
He didn’t know what to say, but something deep inside him called out for him to say something to stop her from leaving.
Not one word left his clogged throat.
All he had to do was shout, “Stay!”
But fear stopped him.
She walked to her car, climbed in, and drove away, leaving him sitting on the porch step reeling from the loss and his own cowardice to make a decision or allow himself to want something he always felt like he shouldn’t.
She’s not for me?
Well, why the hell not?
His heart pounded in his chest and something shifted inside him as that thing that had been nudging and expanding inside