Layla

She shakes her head and throws her arms around my neck. “No, it was perfect.” She kisses me and then pulls back to look at the ring. “And yes. Yes, yes, yes, I’ll marry you.”

This was not the proposal I had imagined.

Far from it.

I try to keep a solid expression on my face, but the bigger her smile gets, the smaller I feel.

She kisses me again, and she tastes like cigarettes, and I have to force myself through the kiss.

I’ve done some pretty terrible things in the last year, but this may be the lowest I’ve ever sunk. I just proposed to a girl I’m not even sure I’m in love with anymore.

“I have to call Aspen,” Layla says. She bounds out the bedroom door and down the stairs.

I just stand still in the bedroom, shaking my head. What have I just done?

I hear something behind me—a noise coming from the dresser. The bottom drawer slowly slides open by itself.

I walk over to the dresser and look inside the drawer. My laptop and my phone are tucked away inside. I pick up my phone and enter the pass code. I open the messages where Willow and I have most of our conversations. There’s an unread message that reads, I had to hide your phone and your laptop after the realtor left. Layla looked really angry and I didn’t want her snooping.

The message was sent an hour ago.

I sigh, walk over to the bed, and fall on top of it, face-first. “I’m sorry,” I say out loud. “I had no other choice.”

The room is silent. I lay my phone on the bed in case Willow wants to use it to respond to me.

She doesn’t.

She doesn’t speak to me at all.CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“You don’t eat enough.” My words come out harsher than I mean for them to. Layla looks up from the food she’s been pretending to take bites of.

“I’ve eaten enough to gain three pounds since we got here.”

“I’m not just talking about these past two weeks. You barely get eight hundred calories a day, tops. It worries me.”

“My body is used to eight hundred calories. I function just fine on that.”

“No, you don’t. You’re always hungry.”

Layla laughs incredulously. “You say that like you know my body better than I do.”

I’m making her angry. That isn’t my intention. It’s just that I’ve been angry all day and that’s transferring onto Layla.

Willow hasn’t spoken to me since I gave Layla the ring. I’ve tried talking to her every time Layla leaves the room, but she doesn’t respond.

Yet another night I’ll spend counting down the minutes until Layla falls asleep.

I take my plate to the sink and rinse it off. Layla can sense something is wrong with me. She pushes back from the table and walks over to me, sidling up next to me. “You okay?”

I realize I’m supposed to be on a high because I proposed to the love of my life today, but it is so fucking hard to fake a smile.

“Is it because of the house?” she asks. “Is it really that important to you?”

I don’t hear any traces of anger in her voice. She seems genuinely curious, so I use her good mood to my advantage. I cup her chin in my hand. “This is where I met you, Layla. Of course it’s important to me.”

She smiles. “That’s sweet.” That doesn’t mean she’s okay with it, though.

“It would be a good investment.” I don’t even know if that’s true. It could be a money pit. “You wouldn’t have to live here. We could buy a house in Nashville and only visit this place when we need to check up on things.”

She actually looks like she’s contemplating everything I’m saying. “I wouldn’t have to live here?”

“No. Think of it like a vacation home. But if I do buy it, we’ll need to stay an extra week so I can close on it. Wrap some things up before we head back to Tennessee.” I’ve never bought a piece of property before, but I’m pretty sure it takes more than a week to close. I don’t want Layla to know that, though.

Layla drops her forehead to my chest. “A whole week,” she says with a sigh. “Ugh. Fine. I trust you.”

I take a step back. “Seriously?”

She nods. “Why not? It means a lot to you, and you’ll be my husband soon. Besides, it might be cool to get married at the same place my sister got married.”

I wrap my arms around her and I hug her. It’s the first hug I’ve given her lately that hasn’t felt forced, but I am so relieved. She’s giving me an extra week here, which means I get to see Willow again.

And owning this place will give me more time to help Willow.

Maybe.

After my actions today, there’s a chance Willow may never speak to me again.