Unspoken Rules (Rules 2)

“I believed you. When everybody on the freaking planet told me not to. When every sign pointed to you being guilty. I always believed you and you can’t even believe in me for two seconds!” Tears build up in my eyes.

I wish I could stop the words coming out of my mouth. I wish I could swallow them before they do any damage. But I can’t. Because Riley’s right. Deep down, I don’t want to be the stepmom. I don’t want to be with a guy who has a kid. I tried. I really did. But it’s too much for me.

So I let them fall.

I let the words destroy us the way Riley wanted them to.

“This doesn’t work. We… We don’t work.”

His jaw drops.

Then, I walk away. No last word, no last look. I leave Haze stranded on the beach, and Kendrick follows. I wish he’d say something. I wish he’d say that he believes me. That he has no idea how he could ever doubt me in the first place, but he doesn’t. He just stands there.

I was wrong before. When I said that nothing would ever be the same after Riley came back.

Things will never be the same now.

Because now…

He made his choice.

19

Losing You

“Do you want to talk about it?” Kendrick asks, his voice breaking the thoughtful silence keeping me company since we left the beach. We’ve been walking for a solid forty minutes with no goal, direction, or purpose. Or should I say, I’ve been walking with no goal, direction, or purpose and my poor cousin’s been following.

“Nope,” I say and try to swallow the painful pit in my throat. What’s there to talk about? Haze believed her. He believed the girl who ran away with his child instead of me. What’s done is done.

Shortly after we left the beach, I turned off my phone. Not because Haze was texting or calling me, but because he wasn’t.

And that silence…

That silence means he doesn’t regret it. That silence means that we really just broke up. I mean, come on, we haven’t even been dating for a month yet.

“What do you want to do now?”

“I don’t know. Walk off the face of the earth,” I whisper to myself.

He sighs. “He’s not worthy of you, Winter. Never has been, never will be.”

I don’t answer, staring into the emptiness. We’re in the middle of nowhere. A few buildings can be seen in the distance but none that I recognize.

“You never should’ve met the guy in the first place. It’s my fault. All of it.” He kicks a rock on the sidewalk with his foot.

“Don’t say that. Everything happens for a reason. Maybe I had something to learn from him. Maybe Riley’s just the Universe giving me a chance to escape before this relationship ruins me.”

It kills me to say that. Hell, it kills me to even think that. It pains me that Haze Adams might just be a lesson. That he might be just a page in a book that’s still out there.

“And what lesson could that be?” he asks.

“I don’t know. Stay single for the rest of your life? Give up on men?” I try to joke. “I’ll let you know when I figure it out.”

Another tear runs down my cheek, and I can tell Kendrick’s hurting for me.

“Want me to kick his ass?” he offers.

“Yes,” I say, but then retract myself. “No, it wouldn’t be right.”