The tears I didn’t even feel building spill onto my cheeks. Gran said that to me every single day, until the day she died. Most beautiful girl in the entire world, inside and out. It was the affirmation I didn’t know I desperately needed until I didn’t hear it anymore.

Until I heard it again right now.

“You can stop now.” I stare unseeing at my lap, swiping away the tears and hoping nobody is watching as I fall apart in this vinyl-covered booth.

“I can’t,” he says with steel in his voice. “Now that you know this, you need to know everything.”

I don’t want to know everything.

I didn’t even want to know this.

“No, I can’t—” I reach for my purse beside me, ready to escape, when what he says next stops me dead in my tracks.

“I know she would be okay with you selling it because I’m the one who gave her Connor’s number.”

“You . . .” It feels like concrete is pumping through my veins. Mind, body, and spirit, I’ve never felt heavier. “You did what?”

“She was looking around; she hadn’t made any decisions yet. She wanted to take the temperature of the market.” He tells me something he has absolutely no business knowing. “She was doing it for you. She—”

So that’s why he was so nervous and cagey when he ran into Connor at the store. It all makes sense and I can’t take any more.

Any wishful thinking I’d dreamt up over these last few months with Jasper turns to ash.

“No, don’t say another word to me.” I stop him from going any further as the implications of his admission weigh down on me. “You have sat here, listening to me tell you about my grandma, about my plans for the future, about my dad.”

He opens his mouth, but I don’t let him get a word out.

“Don’t. I trusted you. I confided in you. And you let me, not telling me that you already knew this stuff about me.” Never in my life have I felt so stupid. “God.”

My voice breaks and I know I’m seconds away from losing it.

I have to get away from him.

“You have the keys to the car.” I pull the strap of my purse over my shoulder and slide out of the booth. “You can go back to the cabin tonight. I need some space. I’m going to find a room in town.”

“Drew,” he says, but I just shake my head.

“It’s too late to drive back to Denver now; I’ll call you in the morning and we can leave then.”

I don’t wait for him to respond. There’s nothing for him to say.