“Don’t touch me.”
Justin’s hand fell. Riley was so far gone emotionally he’d never get through to her until she’d had time to think, to realize they were worth taking a chance on.
“I’ll call later—once you’ve had time to calm down.”
“I won’t change my mind.”
“About?”
“Us.”
That was when it fully sank in. Riley was done. This wasn’t just a disagreement. To Riley, this was the end. She’d just thrown away their relationship.
How could she do that? Be willing to do that? As if they didn’t have something special? As if he didn’t matter?
Perhaps for the first time he understood how Ashley had felt when she’d asked him those same questions. His answer had been easy at the time. He hadn’t loved her.
Just as Riley didn’t love him.
Although she’d yet to get that persistent deeply rooted weed, she began pulling stray bits of grass from the garden bed—as if nothing significant was happening, as if she’d grown bored with the conversation.
As if she wasn’t tearing them apart.
Justin stared down at her, gutted, letting a myriad of emotions filter through him and settling on a mix of resignation and anger.
Why was he doing this? She didn’t want what he wanted, didn’t have the same feelings he did. He just needed to accept it.
“Fine—there is no us.” Each word felt like a razor, scraping his insides before it left his mouth. “I guess there never really was. You have your life and I have mine.”
He turned, quietly let himself out through her gate, making sure Daisy was safely on the other side, and walked away.
Like she’d said—problem solved.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“WHERE ARE RILEY and Daisy?” Kyle asked, as the boy realized Riley and the dog weren’t waiting for them in the Jeep.
Justin had been dreading Kyle’s question, but had known the boy would ask. Of course the kid would.
Riley hadn’t missed a single excursion for the past three months, and if it was something the dog could go to neither had Daisy.
Kyle and Daisy had formed a special bond.
As had he and Riley.
The fact that she wasn’t in the front passenger seat said everything, driving home what had been Justin’s reality this past week and a half.
It’s what she wants, he reminded himself.
What he wanted, too—because he was tired of chasing a woman who didn’t want to be chased.
Justin checked Kyle’s seatbelt, making sure the boy had gotten it secured properly. “Riley won’t be here today.”
Kyle’s sandy brows rose and he stared at Justin from where he sat in the passenger side back seat. “Why not?”
Good question, and one Justin struggled with answering. Because he didn’t understand exactly how they’d gone from talking to her telling him to leave. How had their conversation ended with them ending? He’d come to bare his soul to her and instead he’d walked away.
Maybe he shouldn’t have left.