“What can I do to change your mind?”
“Right now, I don’t know. I need some time.”
“Are we breaking up?”
“Yes. No. I really don’t know, Shep. I wasn’t aware we’d labeled this in the first place.”
“Don’t act like we had to. You know we didn’t.”
“Fine, but right now, I need space, okay? I need to think.”
“Okay, okay. Fine, I get it.” He holds his hands up in defeat. “But Den?”
“Yeah?”
Shep crosses the gazebo, and this time I don’t run from him. His hands cup my face, and I worry he’s going to kiss me—worry because I’m certain even now, I’d still kiss him back.
He’s not a bad guy. I know that. He’s made mistakes—too many to count—but deep down in his heart, I know he’s notbad.
I read somewhere one time that good people sometimes do bad things, but that doesn’t make them bad people.
That’s so fitting for Shep, but it doesn’t make me any less mad at him.
His fingers swipe over my cheeks and his hazel eyes bore into me. “For what it’s worth, this was never unfinished business. It can’t be, because I never stopped loving you.”
He doesn’t try to kiss me.
He just walks away.
And I’m left standing there feeling relieved, angry, and so goddamn confused.
Thirty-Two
Shepard
“I toldyou she should have heard it from you.”
I sigh into the phone. “I know, AJ. I fucking know, okay? But I couldn’t bring myself to say it out loud. It just felt…gross.”
“That’s because it was a gross thing to do. I didn’t talk to you for months after that stunt, remember?”
“Yeah, I remember.”
“She’s not entirely wrong, though,” he says. “You do make excuses for your actions.”
“What the hell is this? Shit on Shep week?”
“No. This is Shep needs to get his shit together before he loses the love of his life week.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be on your honeymoon?” I growl at him.
“Yes—and, again, thank you for paying for it, you fucker.”
“You’re welcome.”
“But,” he says, continuing like I never spoke, “I couldn’t leave my best man hanging. I had to check in on ya. You were kind of a wreck when we left.”
“You mean when Denver tore my heart out and then your wife slapped me?”
