excuses. Instead, he simply sat on the couch looking up at me in a way that made me think he wanted to say more. That worried me.
“What else did you do?” I asked him, my stomach feeling very unwell all of a sudden. “Is there more?”
“No.”
“I can tell you are holding back. You can tell me now or I will find out later. If I have to read about my sex life in another magazine or in the newspaper, I’m not going to be happy.”
“You won’t. At least, not from me.”
“Are you saying it’s out there?” I gasped. “Just how many people know about that night?”
“I don’t know. Just her, I imagine. I know Parker and Jake have an idea, and Cori suspects, but you have to believe me. I have never talked about it with anyone.”
“You ask me to believe you, like that is even possible,” I spat. “How many times am I supposed to believe your bullshit? Why didn’t you tell me about the story?”
“Because it wasn’t the right time.”
I scoffed. “Because you were hoping I would be out of the state before your lie came out.”
“That’s not true.”
His answers were pissing me off. He wasn’t being completely honest. The man drove through a winter storm to talk to me and he wasn’t doing it. I stomped into the small kitchen area and opened a cupboard. I couldn’t see crap with the light from the fire almost blocked by the couch. I managed to find a glass. I pulled it out, opened the bottle of wine that was sitting out, and poured myself a glass.
I should have brought more alcohol. If I would have known I was going to be trapped in a cabin with him, I would have brought twenty bottles.
Even that wouldn’t be enough.
Chapter 52
Chase
This was not going like I planned. It was much harder than I thought it would be.
I understood her anger, but if she could stop to see that my motivations weren’t sinister, she would understand why I did what I did. Then again, she couldn’t see past the part that seemed like I used her. I didn’t use her. My motivations came from someplace else.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t tell her that. I could, but I didn’t want to. If I told her why I planted the story, she would have all the power. If she knew I was crazy in love with her, that left me vulnerable. She would have the power to destroy my heart. If she laughed in my face and rejected my love, it would be too painful.
Instead, I was trying to walk a fine line between the partial truth and the full truth. Unfortunately, the partial truth made me look and sound like a real asshole. I would switch tactics. I needed to go back in time to heal the first wound, and maybe the second wouldn’t be nearly as bad.
“I’m sorry for what happened the morning after prom,” I said. “I have apologized, and I will continue to apologize for springing that on you. I should have told you about the option. I should have discussed it with you.”
“Yes, you should have,” she snapped, carrying her glass and moving to sit down on the couch again.
“I didn’t tell you about it because I knew you would talk me out of it. You had this fire inside you that was contagious. You are tenacious, and when you want something, you get it. I wanted to be the man you thought you saw in me. I wasn’t ever going to be that man. I wasn’t meant for college. I didn’t know how to tell you. I was afraid if I went to school, you would see I wasn’t the man you believed me to be. You would be disappointed. I didn’t have the strength or the courage to push through four years of school to try and please you. I would have failed you and school.”
“You don’t know that I would have been disappointed,” she said. “I didn’t get the chance to tell you.”
“Harper, I couldn’t do college. I knew it wasn’t the right path for me. I still believe that to this day. It would have destroyed me.”
“You’re being dramatic.”
“Going to work with my dad was what I wanted to do. I needed to learn the business from him, not from a textbook. My dad knew his business inside and out. A professor that teaches the same thing to thousands of young adults couldn’t give me the details of