The Ex Factor - Erin McCarthy Page 0,76

out of left field. Don’t I matter to you at all?”

That he could ask that question almost destroyed her. “You matter too much. You become everything. I think that we have taken our duet as far as it can go. Or maybe just take a break, but something needs to change because I can’t have my every second wrapped up in you. Not if we’re going to work.”

“If you go on tour with Wayne, everything will be nothing.” His voice was firm.

What the hell was he saying? “What does that mean?”

“It means that if you’re not all in, how can I hold you back?” He rubbed his chin. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe you need to be free of me to find that success you need. You were willing to give me that, at the cabin. You said if I wasn’t all in, you’d release me. So, maybe I need to extend you the same offer.”

Jolene didn’t know what to do with this side of Chance. He seemed rational, but what the hell was he really saying? “Release me, how? From being Hart-Rivers? Or from our relationship?”

“From both. For now. Until we’re both in a better place.”

If he had shown fear at losing her, or raw pain and confusion, she might have called off the deal with Wayne. She might have been willing to pass up the opportunity of a lifetime. But he stood there, and seemed… nonchalant. She couldn’t be the one who opened herself up wholly, who let him intertwine in every aspect of her career and her heart, if he couldn’t do the same. She just wanted a compromise. Not all or nothing.

Yet she’d demanded that, hadn’t she? God, he was right. It was all or not and as she stood there in an agony of indecision he looked like her response didn’t mean anything to him one way or the other. She opened her mouth, but she honestly didn’t know what to say.

She didn’t want to fight with Chance. Not ever again.

So she just walked out.

In a move that she had to admit was thoroughly childish, she swiped their Song of the Year Grammy off his mantle and walked out. Tit for tat, y’all.

He made a groan of frustration in the back of his throat as she left, but he didn’t follow her.

Jolene got in her truck, drove around the corner, parked, and sobbed. She should have never gone there with Chance again. Fool her once, fool her twice. But maybe the man was right. Maybe they needed to release each other, without anger, without hatred, without rancor, before they could come back together. As a team. In the studio and in life.

Or maybe they were done.

Dang, that thought stung. She wanted nine million gallons of ice cream, a vat of wine, seven naps, and a cupboard full of plates she could smash against the wall.

But sometimes when one door closed, you took your pink cowboy boot and you kicked another one open.

She was going on tour with Wayne Rush, country legend.

And she wasn’t even remotely excited about it.

Chance just stared at the door after Jolene left and fought the urge to go straight to his liquor cabinet. It was what he had always done and look where it had gotten him. Trashing guitars and relationships. He was done with all of that.

Jolene had walked out.

He wasn’t as angry this time around. He was more hurt but frankly, resigned. She was jumping ship to work with Wayne Rush, the biggest douche this side of Los Angeles, after zero discussion, but he’d just encouraged her to do just that. Jolene needed to know her worth in this business. Maybe even her worth as a woman. Hell, he had a thing or two to learn himself, about the kind of man he wanted to be going forward.

It had been his hope they would work those things out together. But maybe it needed to be this way. Something had Jolene running scared and he had to be man enough this time to not hurl careless words that couldn’t be taken back.

He couldn’t wish her ill. If anything, he hoped that she got what she wanted. He had wanted that to be him. Him and her. But if that wasn’t her goal, her desire, her need, than he couldn’t do a damn thing about it.

Holy hell, he was resigned to losing Jolene. Already. Chance rubbed at his chest, where he suddenly felt like he had acid reflux.

It occurred to him maybe