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“Don’t” I shook my head “Believe me, after I say what I have to say you won’t want to”

Silence fell fast and thick between us and then he saw so in my eyes

“Jesus,” he choked out, sounding winded, like he’d just been punched in the gut “Are you breaking up with me?”

I covered myto hold back spilled down my cheeks as I nodded

His face hardened His hands clenched into fists at his sides “Why?” he bit out

“I’mI’m not happy here,” I lied

“Bullshit!”

I flinched again at his tone, and my whole body locked with tension as he suddenly strode over to h he looked like he wanted to wring my neck “It’s not,” I lied

“It’s a fucking lie For once, Jessica, tell me the truth”

I shookfast, too fast to keep up with

Cooper glowered at , so fucking tell me the truth!”

I couldn’t Literally My throat was choked with sobs that wanted to break out

“You owe me,” he said, his voice lowered, so deep and thick with his own emotion that it made me cry harder “You owe me that much”

At ripped my arms and pulledhe felt for e ony in my life “You told me,” he whispered “You told me e met that the reason you beca, ‘I was here,’ because soet youand you’d htened to painful as he leaned his forehead against mine—“Jess, you can rest easybecause you’ve made your mark You made your mark on me No matter what happens between us now or in the future, I will never forget you You’re inside h so I could see his love forthat the sobs I’d been holding in burst out “So you owe me”

Needing to feel hi him to feel how I felt in return, even if I couldn’t say it, I buried ainst his shirt as I wrapped ht

He held ht No hesitation

I ainst mine, the musky, earthy scent that would forever make me think of him and what it was like to hear him whisperthat time would never take it from me

“You’re still leaving me,” he choked out

I sobbed harder

He gently but firmly pushed me away

I thought my heart couldn’t break any more but then the look on his face The pain All those shattered places in my heart, they shattered some more

“Tell me why”

I swiped at ht I owed him that much “I don’t deserve you”

“That’s not an answer”

“I can’t tell you That’s the point You’ll never really know me I’d just be another Dana, Cooper Just another woman in your bed that you don’t really know”

This time it was his turn to flinch

“I’m sorry”

Anger hardened his expression “That’s fucking up to you, Jess You could let me know you What happened in your past? Does it have to do with your family? Your sister?”

Just like that my blood went cold, and I started to tremble harder My tears dried up, and I wrapped

“It is,” he said “Every tie”

And that hy I was leaving

I couldn’t physically or e myself to tell him the truth I’d never been able to unburden myself with anyone

Not even him

If he knew the truthwellhe’d never look at uy

It was my own fault

I’d seen it co weeks before

But I just couldn’t resist getting close to hi the connection between us

Nownow I’d hurt us both

Not so sirl

Finally Cooper turned away, unable to look at ht”

“Yes,” I whispered

“You begged me to stay”

“It rong of me”

He looked back at ?”

I dropped o”

He was silent for what seeo now, you don’t ever come back”

His warning h me and chilled my body to ice inch by inch

And, like the coward I kneas, I didn’t look at hiain as I hurried from the bar As soon as the door slammed shut behind me, I ran

I ran and ran until the boards came to an end and there was nowhere else to run

TWENTY-FIVE

Jessica

Only an idiot would have stayed in Hartwell

I was a damn idiot

Bailey hadn’t thrown me out She’d been confused and upset by my breakup with Cooper and hurt when I refused to tell her why, but she hadn’t thrown s o;Don’t” I shook my head “Believe me, after I say what I have to say you won’t want to”