I’m not about to admit that to my ex right now to set fuel to the fire.
“He’s just a friend,” I lie.
Theodore scoffs. “He didn’t look like just a friend. I saw the way he needed to touch you when he left us alone here. Dumb ass. For even leaving you alone with me. You’ll always be mine.”
I narrow my eyes and feel a smoke cloud forming over my head. Theodore doesn’t deserve his heart handled with care at this point.
“You know you miss me,” he says, not giving me a chance to respond. All the while bringing himself closer to me and successfully placing both hands on my shoulders to hold me in place. “Stop trying to play the victim here, Blair.”
And I hate my name from his mouth.
I look deep into his eyes, trying to find the man I fell in love with all those years ago hidden somewhere in the irises. But it’s long gone. It was gone years before I left.
“Not a single piece of my heart misses you,” I admit without even a single blink of an eye. He doesn’t move, and I don’t push him off me even though his touch burns me. But not the good burn. “I didn’t know then what I know now, and I deserve better. Ihavebetter. You might have been the one to put the ring on my finger, but those vows meant nothing to you. The same way your apologies and begging to take me back mean nothing to me right now.”
I expect my words to force him to remove his hands from me, but they don’t. He stares at me with such intensity. Hoping I’ll change my mind or that I don’t mean what I’m saying.
“You and me…we were never right,” I continue. “When I’m in his arms, it feels the way it should. It feels safe, and it feels right.”
He steps back, removing his hands from me and averting his gaze from the dirt around his feet.
“The truth hurts, doesn’t it?” I add.
He looks up at me again, emotions in his eyes, but I will notlet them affect me. Deep down I know the emotions don’t stem from the love he has for me; it’s the love he has for the office and his job. The future he won’t have because I will never go back to him.
“You don’t want this, babe. You know it. Don’t listen to what other people have been feeding into your head. They are just telling you this because they don’t like me. But you love me.”
I rear back as if I’ve been hit.
Not physically, but definitely mentally.
Has—Is this what it’s been like all long, but I was too blind to see it? Has he always played this narcissistic and manipulative game on me? I want to rage and blow up on him right now. But what good is it going to do with a man like this standing in front of me?
“Theodore,” I say with a sigh. “All I ever wanted was to be loved by you, and you crushed me. You destroyed me. If the tables were turned, and you saw what I did that day in your office, I’m betting you would feel the same way…” I pause, watching his face as he winces. No doubt understanding that he would feel the same way. “I have too much pride in myself to let that happen again. What you did to me never deserves a second chance.”
“So that’s it? I drove out here for nothing?”
I nod, feeling the energy shift between us.
I know he’s angry at everything I just said, he’s ready to turn the tables and make this my fault some more.
“You wasted your time. Go home,” I say quickly, not giving him the opportunity to throw more manipulation my way.
I turn around to make my way back to the barn, unsure if Griffin is even still here. Did he leave with Storm to go back out for a ride?
“You’re going to regret this,” he shouts from behind me.
I cross the arch leading to the ranch entrance, stopping my feet. I inhale a deep breath as I look up to the sky, silently praying he gets back in his car and goes home.
When I open my eyes, I read the wordsBarlow Ranch. Directly under it are small words I didn’t notice until right now.
The best view comes after the hardest climb.
I suck in a sharp breath. The words mean more now than ever before. The words carved in the wood as if they weren’t originally there. As if it was a thought someone had after the sign was already in place.
Griffin.
I turn around, grinning from ear to ear.
