“I can’t believe that. Won’t.”
I pushed my fingers through my hair. “I don’t know, Landon. I just can’t see how—”
“Can I take you to dinner? You can ask me as many questions as you like, and I have nothing to hide.”
“And then what? You go back to London and we become pen pals? You have a job waiting for you. A flat. A life.”
He glanced over at my books. “My flat has a bigger table than this place.”
“What?”
“You’re studying. Avery told me she didn’t think you’d be going back to yachting. And you don’t belong in some shitty motel. It doesn’t suit you, and I think you know that.”
“Avery told you I want to go to college?”
“No. But you have a dozen books on your dressing table.”
He always saw more than I showed him. “You were right the first time.”
“So come study in London. See if you like it—it has some of the best universities in the world.”
I couldn’t hold back my smile. “You’re crazy. I can’t just come to London. We barely know each other. And I have a job and—” I was clutching at straws. There weren’t ma
ny good reasons not to leave Ohio, but Landon wasn’t a reason to say yes.
“I think we both know we’re not ready for whatever we have to be over,” he said.
There wasn’t an hour in my waking day that I didn’t think about him. “It’s a lovely idea but . . .”
“Don’t say ‘but’. There doesn’t need to be a ‘but’.”
There were a thousand reasons to say no to him. He’d hurt me—cut me to the bone when I’d opened myself up to him—but every fiber in my body wanted to say yes. “I need to think about it.”
His face remained blank. Was that his training? There was so much I didn’t know about the man in front of me, and everything was tumbling about between my head and my heart. I didn’t know which way was up anymore.
“I need some time,” I said.
“But you’ll think about it? About us? About coming to London?”
“I’m still bruised, Landon. I get that you were trying to keep me safe. But my hard wiring tells me not to trust men who lie, whatever their reasons. You know I’ve spent my life trying to avoid repeating my mother’s mistake. It’s instinct now just to rely on myself.”
“Skylar.”
“I mean it, Landon. This is a lot to think about.” It wasn’t as if he was proposing or offering any kind of guarantee, which wasn’t a bad thing. It was honest, at least.
“Okay. But I’m not going anywhere. Not far, at least. I’m checked in at the hotel next door. Can I take you to dinner?”
“It’s been a long day and, really, I need to think.”
“Tomorrow, then. Can we have breakfast?”
“I have to study, then I have work. And I really need some time to get my head around everything you’ve said.”
“Promise me that you won’t just skip out of town without telling me.”
“You think I could do that?” He might have lied to me, but he knew me better than anyone, and I’d never do that.
“I just don’t want this to be the last time I see you.”