Trouble with the Fake Boyfriend (Rock Bottom #3) - Holly Renee Page 0,53
hurt in that way even if we were just pretending.
If she was pretending. Because I wasn’t. Not anymore.
“Brooke.” I reached out and gripped her fingers in mine. “Hold on.”
She turned toward me, and I could see the panic in her eyes before she quickly hid it. “I didn’t mean to interrupt you.” She looked over my shoulder to where Katie and I just were.
“You weren’t interrupting anything.”
“It looked like I was.” She didn’t say it like she was accusing me. She said it like she was sad.
“She wanted to talk.”
“It’s okay, Liam,” she interrupted me before I could explain. “You don’t owe me an explanation.”
But I did. I owed her more than I would ever be able to give her.
She nodded toward the table where my parents sat. “I’m going to get some air before I head back over there.” She lifted the skirt of her dress so she wouldn’t step on it and started moving away from me.
“I’ll come with you.”
“No.” The word was so sure. So final. “I just need a minute alone.”
I didn’t want to give her a minute alone. I didn’t want to give a single second.
She knew it too. “Please, Liam.” She took another step back from me, and I swear I could see pain in her eyes.
Pain that I had caused her without even trying.
I didn’t want to hurt her anymore.
“Okay.” I nodded my head. If this was what she needed then it was what I’d give her.
Her blond hair was still perfectly curled and the dress still fit her body like a glove, but that spark in her eyes that she walked in with, that was completely gone.
“I’ll meet you back at the table.” I nodded toward where my parents still sat. Not a clue in the world that their son was losing the girl he never even had.
But I could feel it.
She was pulling away from me right in front of my eyes.
Sixteen
A Business Deal
Brooke
I felt like I couldn’t breathe.
I knew that was silly. I had no right to be mad, and I wasn’t. I was something that I couldn’t even explain.
I was confused and hurt and so damn mad at myself for ever thinking this was more than it actually was.
Liam didn’t do anything wrong. He was kind to me and playful, and I let my stupid heart lead instead of my head.
I never let that happen, and there was a reason.
This was the reason.
I had no idea what he and Katie were talking about, and I didn’t have a right to know.
But it didn’t matter.
I saw the way he was looking at her. It was the same way he looked at her every time we saw her. He looked at her like he would never look at me.
Katie had been real for him.
I was a business deal.
Regardless of what he thought he felt.
And I needed to start acting like one.
I needed to remember that Liam was acting and regardless of how good of an actor he was, I was a complete fool if I didn’t remember exactly where I stood. Tonight was nothing but a reminder of that.
He was caught up in this week and what he thought he wanted, but we would be going back home tomorrow and reality would hit him.
He would regret believing we could be anything more.
I was going to be his business partner, and as such, I had no right to care about what he was doing with his ex. I had no right to care that her hand had been on his chest like he was hers.
He had been more hers than he had ever been mine.
She was the only one who had any right to care or be jealous, but she gave up that right the moment she chose anyone else over him.
I hated her for hurting him and being here and making me question everything just when I thought I had a clue about what I was feeling.
I stared out over the small balcony at the small creek that ran by the hotel. The wedding had been beautiful. Liam’s cousin didn’t look a thing like him, but he did look happy.
He looked so in love with his bride that it made me a bit jealous. I was dying to be looked at like that.
I was an idiot.
I was an idiot for coming here, for ever agreeing to this whole damn plan of Liam’s, and I was an idiot for letting myself forget why I was here.