Page 71 of Acceptance
Locking eyes with him, she blinks as the tears fall from her long lashes. “Because I know what it feels like to be loved by you, and you don’t make me feel that way anymore. It’s no secret that if Marnie hadn’t been attacked tonight, I wouldn’t even be here. You’d still have no idea I don’t live in your house anymore.”
He hates how he can’t argue with her logic. “I told you, baby doll—”
“I told you not to call me that.”
Her sharp tone hits him like a wrecking ball. He’s officially fucked up. “I told you that I get tunnel vision. Nina’s the only link I had left to Aaron.”
“I get it.”
“It doesn’t sound like you do.”
“I get it. It’s you who doesn’t understand, and I’m no longer in the position to explain it to you. You want me to say it’s okay, and that we’ll move on, but I can’t.”
Closing his eyes, Undertaker shakes his head. “You don’t want to move past this?”
“I want to stop losing,” Jamie whispers. “For once, I want to win.”
His eyes snap open, and he gapes at her. “What are you talking about?”
“I should’ve listened to my instincts. They told me you’d lose interest in me. It was inevitable. I always knew I’d lose you to another woman, but I never thought she’d be dead. I don’t know how to compete with a ghost, and I’m done fighting. I can’t make anyone love me, and I can’t keep trying.”
“That’s what you think? That you have to compete with Nina?”
She shakes her head. “No, because in order to compete, you have to be in the game. I bowed out. I learned a long time ago that it’s not worth playing a game you know you can’t win.”
“So, that’s it? You’re just done with me?”
“You really don’t see it, do you?”
“No, Jamie, I really fucking don’t.”
Rolling her bottom lip between her teeth, she shakes her head again. “You left me, and I fought for a while, but I recognize the pattern. The one that tells me I’ll only end up hurt, and I stepped away from the car. You had every opportunity to realize you left me behind, but you just kept driving. And I let you because I know I can’t stop a getaway car.”
“This isn’t what it is!” he shouts and clenches his fists at his sides. “How can you believe I wouldn’t do anything for you?”
“Because you literally did nothing,” she says, a sob escaping. Her hand flies to her mouth, but she continues to stare at him. “I wasn’t asking for much. A phone call. Coming home one night. You couldn’t be bothered to do that.”
His stomach drops. “I want to get this asshole off the streets—”
“And you left me alone with no one while you did it. You put me in a position to be a desirable target. If this guy grabbed me on my way home one night, you’d never know. I’d be just another unidentified woman sitting in the morgue.”
“That’s… I never intended…”
“But those were your actions. I know better than to trust words alone, especially when the actions I’ve seen don’t align. Promises are easily broken, and you broke your promises, Undertaker.”
Undertaker? We’re here, now?
A knock at the door makes him snap. “What?”
“Woah,” Lex says after she opens the door. “Back it up about thirty steps.”
“We’re in the middle of something here.”
“And I’m supposed to hang with Jamie because Brock and Grayson found something you need to talk about as a group. You know… a plan.”
Maybe this won’t be such a bad idea. Maybe Lex can talk some sense into Jamie. “Yeah, that sounds like a good plan.” He turns and looks at his girl. “This isn’t over.”
“Yes, Undertaker, it is.”
