She lifted her eyes from the computer in front of her and took me in. Recognition flashed across her face instantly. “You’re heading out.” She didn’t ask it, she said it matter-of-factly.

Wincing, I propped up an elbow on the desk, resting my head against my hand. “I have to.”

She sighed, looking at me with warmth I didn’t feel like I deserved right now. “I figured you might say that. Too bad, I was looking forward to spending one last evening with you.”

“I’m sorry about that. Hopefully the bar won’t be too slammed.”

She waved off my apology. “Don’t worry about it. It’s been dead this past week. I’ll manage.”

I still felt like shit, though. When had I become someone so fragile I would bail on my commitments when things got hard?

“I wanted to say goodbye.”

She walked around from behind the desk and gave me a quick hug, patting me on the shoulder as she pulled away. “It was absolutely a pleasure having you, Oliver. You’re welcome back any time.”

“Maybe next winter,” I offered, although this pain was still too raw to consider returning to Key Ridge.

“You leaving, man?”

I turned to see Giles and Mattie walking into the lodge. Mattie’s face was bright red and her eyes were swollen. Shit. She looked about as good as I felt.

“Yeah,” I said. “Just making the rounds.”

Giles walked over and clasped my hand and we gave each other a brief one-armed hug.

When I went to offer Mattie a hug, she glared at me.

“Um, bye?” I offered, wary to go in for a hug.

As fast as the glare arrived, it crumpled and a few tears streamed down her face. Damn, the resemblance between her and Frankie was obvious right now. It killed me.

“This is all wrong,” she said.

Giles let out a long sigh. “Mattie, don’t.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “This sucks. You two are so hellbent on following these ideals you’ve made up in your mind, you’re blinding yourselves. You’re giving up the only thing that matters.”

Now I wanted to bolt. She was talking about Frankie and me, and I didn’t know what to say. I was trying to do the right thing by her, but this whole situation was so far out of my league. I had no idea what the hell I was doing. All I knew was that doing what was best for Frankie was the most important thing.

“She loves you, did you know that?” Mattie sniffed.

My ears perked up. “What did you say?” I demanded.

“Mattie, that isn’t yours to share,” Giles said, rubbing his jaw and looking between the two of us.

I barely heard him. All of the wind had been knocked out of me.

“She told me she loved you but she wouldn’t tell you because she didn’t want to make this worse.” Mattie flung her arms out in frustration. “How stupid is that? You two are clearly miserable and fighting some internal war against yourselves. How can you both be so dumb?”