Saving Rose Red - Maggie Dallen Page 0,44

back.

Andie bit her lip to keep tears at bay. She’d found the man she loved but he didn’t feel the same way. Or he did and he wouldn’t admit it. Or he maybe he would have if she hadn’t gone and rushed things like an idiot, essentially scaring him off for good.

But if he was that easily scared off, then maybe he wasn’t the one for her. If he was the man she’d thought he was, he would have felt it too, right? Or was she just a hopeless romantic who’d read way too many romance novels and couldn’t tell the difference between reality and fantasy?

She hadn’t slept all night as her memory replayed their interaction on a loop. Each time she mentally watched the rerun of her life, her anger and hurt grew exponentially until this morning she’d come out to the kitchen in a full-blown rage. Deep down she had an inkling that this anger was her heart’s way of coping. Anger was so much easier to deal with than pain.

She supposed she should be mad at Cole. Not because he’d made out with her. She was a big girl and that had been her decision. She should be angry because he was denying what was between them. It was a physical connection, sure—there was no way he could have missed the inferno that seemed to rage between them. But it was more than that. She knew it. He had to have felt it too…hadn’t he?

But despite her best intentions to make Cole the object of her rage fest, she just couldn’t do it. This anger was self-directed. Because really, who fell in love over the course of a couple days? This girl, that’s who.

She’d always known that when love came a knockin’, she’d hear it right away. That’s just how she was. Her gut reigned supreme. Her heart and her gut had an exceptionally open line of communication and if her instincts said wowza then her heart sat up and took notice.

When Cole had walked into her life, it had been a one-two punch. First the physical attraction and then, when she’d started talking to him—or rather, when he started talking back—it became so clear. He was the yin to her yang. Or vice versa, she could never remember which one was feminine. He was the Fred to her Ginger, the peaches to her cream, the alphabet to her soup, the—

“If you tell us what happened, maybe we could help,” Jenna said. Her voice was so quiet and oddly gentle that another wave of tears threatened to drown her. She held them back by ruthlessly biting the inside of her cheek, an age-old trick that never failed. “Could you pass me the coffee, please?”

Jenna’s lips pulled to the side in frustration but she handed over the carafe without comment.

Cole had been gone by the time she’d stumbled out of the spare bedroom bright and early this morning. She’d half hoped he’d be there waiting to say something—anything—to make this situation better. She’d been disappointed to find the blankets from the couch folded up on the floor. But if she was being honest, she’d been just a little bit relieved as well.

Staring at the empty couch, she’d had to face facts. She was humiliated. Her pride stung from the blow of not having her feelings reciprocated. The fact that her heart was broken—well, that was a deep and agonizing ache that wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon. But wounded pride was a sharp, swift kick in the gut. Easier to deal with, it wouldn’t last long, but it was front and center at the moment, making it hard to ignore. That was part of the reason she didn’t want to talk about it with Jenna and Mackenzie.

Maybe she’d been too quick rushing into such deep feelings for a man she barely knew. Or maybe she was perfectly right in giving voice to her feelings and he was the idiot who couldn’t see what was right in front of his face. When it came down to it, it didn’t really matter. Either way, she’d said the three words she’d never said to any man, and he’d walked out the door. No, worse. He’d said “this was a mistake” and then walked out the door.

A groan of misery slipped out and she glanced up to see Jenna and Mackenzie exchanging concerned looks. I’ll be fine, she wanted to tell them. It was disappointing, but she’d get over it. She just