feel like she was special. Important. And yet there was this piece of evidence, this red flag, showing her that maybe he didn’t think she was enough.
That maybe he viewed her education status as a flaw. Something to correct. Something that needed to be addressed in order for their relationship to work.
The water shut off in the bathroom and Audrey dropped the pages back into the box as if they were burning her. It was ridiculous to think that she and Ronan had a future. Despite their chemistry and compatibility, their lives were very different. Ronan followed his own path. Hell, he’d left his grandmother and sister behind to follow an opportunity to the other side of the world.
And Audrey…well, she was stuck here. More importantly, she would never “unstick” herself at the expense of her brother and sisters.
Letting herself play house with Ronan was dangerous, because it would only make it hurt more when he left. And he would leave. He said he didn’t know what was next, but it was obvious he wanted a life bigger and more exciting than the one she had laid out in front of her. Why would he put everything on hold and miss out on opportunities to stay in Kissing Creek?
Shaking her head and refusing to indulge the tears threatening to fall, she slung her bag over one shoulder and headed for the front door. Her hand wrapped around the handle as Ronan walked out of the bathroom.
“Audrey?” He had a white towel around his waist. “Where are you going?”
For a moment, Audrey couldn’t respond. Her throat was tighter than a pair of non-stretch jeans after a Thanksgiving turkey. She released the doorknob and sucked in a deep breath.
“This isn’t working for me,” she said evenly. “I have to go.”
Confusion splashed across his face like red paint. “A few minutes ago, you were smiling about us going to breakfast. What happened?”
Audrey’s eyes betrayed her by darting over to the kitchen table and the box of Ronan’s notebooks and research materials. Knowing that even after she’d poured her heart out to him, confessed things about her family she’d never told another living soul…that he still didn’t respect her decision enough not to try to “fix” her.
Or worse, “complete” her.
Wasn’t she enough as she was? Couldn’t she ever be enough with what she had? Why did it feel like everybody questioned her decisions? Her dad wanted a say in everything she did; her aunt kept trying to convince Audrey to move in with her; Nicole pushed her to visit her mother’s grave.
“I need to make my own choices,” she said, pressing her palm against the doorframe. But that’s when she realized he couldn’t hear the swirling tornado of thoughts in her head.
“We don’t have to go to breakfast if you don’t want to,” Ronan said, bewildered.
“I saw the research, Ronan, about the high school diploma. And don’t insult me by trying to pretend it’s for someone else.”
Ronan scrubbed a hand over his face. “I looked into it for you.”
“Why?”
“Because…” He threw his hands up, and for a moment Audrey was concerned they were going to have a wardrobe malfunction in the middle of their breakup.
Breakup. You already know it’s happening.
“Because you deserve it,” he finished.
“So?”
“So…” He let out a huff. “You should have it.”
“How nice it must be to get things simply because you deserve them,” she said, shaking her head. “My life doesn’t work like that.”
“That’s because you lock yourself away in a bubble.” He let out a breath. “You cut yourself off from exploring opportunities.”
“I know what I can and can’t have.”
“Audrey.” Ronan came forward, his hands up. “Let’s take a minute to talk this through.”
“I don’t have time for this. I don’t have time for someone who thinks he can swoop in and solve my problems like I haven’t thought a hundred million times about how I could change things to have everything I want.” Her lips pulled into a flat line.
“But you can have what you want. What’s to stop you from finishing your diploma and then enrolling in a course here? You could stay in town, be close to your brother and sisters—”
“I’d still need money for all this. Not to mention time. It’s one thing to take a casual night class where the grades don’t mean a damn thing and entirely another to have even more pressure heaped on me when they do count.” Her heart pounded in her chest, the vibrations rattling all the way through her