I took a step, followed by another, and drew closer to him until we were within arm’s reach. His jaw ticked as he watched me, but he didn’t move. Neither of us moved. I searched his face, probing, like I might see into his brain if I tried hard enough.

“I need you to trust me, James.” The muscles in his neck were strained, his voice matching.

A strangled sob escaped from the back of my throat. “How can I trust you when you won’t give me an answer?”

“I love you more than anything in this world, but I can’t give you that.” His eyes held mine, pained but unreadable. “And we can’t…” He let out a heavy sigh. “I can’t be with you right now.”

My world shattered at my feet.

“What?” I shuffled back, putting space between us like it would somehow protect my heart. “How can you—how can you say you love me and then turn around and do this? You don’t want to be with me anymore? Just like that?”

Chase started to reach for me and caught himself, dropping his hands to his sides. He balled his hands into fists, flexing and releasing. “That’s not—I want to be with you more than I want anything.”

“Right,” I retorted angrily. “Except you’re choosing not to.” An ache erupted in my chest, so consuming that I thought I might literally be having a heart attack. I loved him. He loved me. I knew both of those things to be true, so how could this be happening?

It was like learning everything I thought to be true was a lie.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “This is what’s best.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but the words didn’t appear. We stared at each other, bathed in unspoken words and unanswered questions. The silence stretched on and on while my heart bled out on the bedroom floor, one beat at a time.

Finally, he cleared his throat. “I should go.”

With another pained look, he turned and started for my bedroom door. Still frozen to the spot with disbelief, I watched him disappear into the hall. Moments later, the sound of the front door shutting quietly behind him followed.

Tears erupted in earnest, accompanied by huge, gulping sobs. I couldn’t stop the tears, couldn’t catch my breath, couldn’t make sense of what Chase had said. Everything we had was gone. And I still didn’t understand why.

“Bailey?” Shiv called. “Are you okay?”

“No.”

Seconds later, she stepped into my room. When she caught sight of me, she rushed over and threw her arms around me. “What happened?”

My voice cracked. “I don’t know.”

55. 48 hours

CHAPTER 55

48 HOURS

Chase

Fuck my life.

I guess I just did.

* * *

“Think about it, James. We would have really tall kids. They would be giants.”

“You’re drunk, Carter. Cute, but drunk.”

* * *

BAILEY