Bad Boy Best Friend - Hope Ford Page 0,26

doesn’t give up. He pleads with me. “It was a mistake. You were pulling away. You admitted that to me before you left. You gave up on us before we were over and it drove me to do what I did.”

I start to nod, but then catch myself. “We were having problems, but I didn’t go sleep with someone else. You made your choice.”

“This isn’t you—” Keith starts to say, reaching for my hand this time.

“No,” I say, feeling stronger with Austin behind me. “You never knew me. You controlled me. You told me what to be, and who to see. You never loved me, and I lied to myself telling myself that I was in love with you. I didn’t want to make a mistake and marry someone who wouldn’t want to settle down. You fooled me there. I thought you’d be loyal and safe.”

“I am.”

“No. No you’re not. Listen to me, Keith. There is no chance for you to win me back. I don’t want anything from you, but most of all I don’t want you, Keith.”

He takes a step back, looking at me like I’m someone else, a stranger, someone he really doesn’t know.

He puts his hands on his hips. “I don’t know why you’re acting like this, but if I leave now, I’m not coming back. I won’t forgive you for treating me like this.”

Thank God, I think to myself. I just want this over. “I understand. Goodbye forever, Keith.”

He stands there open-mouthed and doesn’t even seem to notice when Austin moves around me and opens the door for him. “She said goodbye. It’s time for you to leave. Go. If you come back you’ll get thrown out of town in such a way that you won’t forget not to come back. Hopefully, you’re smart enough to get it this time.”

Keith glares at Austin but is too scared of him to dare to say anything as he walks out.

I watch him get in his car and peel out as he leaves, and finally I feel like I’m really and truly free of him and all of the helplessness he made me feel.

Austin

It’s never been so hard not to beat another man to a bloody pulp before. The whole time Keith was in my shop I wanted to kick his ass, but I know that Laney needed to be the one to deal with him.

“Are you okay?” I ask, trying to be sensitive to the way she may be feeling when all I want to do is sweep her up in my arms and tell her what a badass she is.

“I’m fine. I’m good, really,” she says as she turns to face me. “But I’ve got to finish what I started. I ended things with Keith because he wasn’t the right man for me and because he wasn’t going to give me what I want, what I need.”

I nod, smiling at her, proud of her. “You did great.”

She starts to fidget, looking everywhere but in my eyes. My stomach rolls when she says, “Thank you, but now I have to end things with you.”

I put my hand out and lean on the counter to steady myself. No combination of words have ever had so much power as those, just like a KO punch as far as I’m concerned.

“Why?” I finally manage to ask. “I’m not like Keith. I know you, I know who you are, and I’ve never tried to change you.”

She nods her head in agreement, but there’s still a stubborn tilt to her chin. “That’s true, but this has to end. It’s finished. We’re just friends now and that’s it.”

I shake my head trying to find words when I’m so mind blown as she moves past me and gets her purse. She goes out the door, and I follow her and stop her, kicking her car door shut. “No. I have a say in this too, Laney. Tell me why.”

She swipes at her eyes, wiping away tears and proving to me that she doesn’t want to break up either. “Because we have to. We don’t want the same things. You don’t want what I want, and I know that if one day I walk in on you and find you with some other woman, I won’t walk away. It’ll kill me.”

Since I’m blocking her way to her car, she retreats and goes back into the shop to get away from me, but clearly she’s not thinking it through.

I follow her back inside, and as soon