Page 93 of Sing Your Secrets
Well, shit. He took the words right out of my mouth.
“Why did you lie to me about being engaged?”
“Because I’m an idiot—”
“No arguments here.”
He flattens his expression. “I told myself if I wanted forgiveness, I had to rebuild the foundation of what I broke. I figured if I approached you as just a friend, we could work on building trust and I could show you I’ve changed…or changed back. I didn’t want to even talk to Mac until I made things right with you first.”
I take a deep breath in and realize how sick I am of this conversation. “Peter,” I say softly.
“Yeah?”
“You don’t have to beg for my forgiveness. I’m done punishing you. I’m sorry we didn’t work out. We were so young and I’d rather just remember the good. There was a lot of bad but there was a lot of good too. To be honest, even now, I’m hurt seeing you hurt. I guess that means I will always care about you.”
He sighs in relief. “You’re such a good woman, Reese. You’re too good to me—”
I hold up my hand to stop him from falling down the wrong rabbit hole. “But as a friend. My heart isn’t available in any other way.”
I shift my eyes from the wounded expression on his face. “Okay,” he says like he understands, but the fact that he looks like he’s about to cry tells a different story. “I get it. I know it’ll take you time—”
“No.” I shake my head. “I’m able to forgive you, Petey, because I’m in a good place. I’m not going back to us. I can’t be anything other than your friend…ever. So, you may want to rethink what you’re doing with The Garage, because if this is some grand romantic gesture…it’s lost on me. Okay?”
“Okay,” he says again, refusing to look at me now. We both stare over, around, and through each other, in silence, trying to pretend like this conversation isn’t killing us both. I thought rejecting Petey would feel good after all the anger and bitterness I’ve carried around for years. But what kind of awful person can smile at someone getting their heart broken?
“Also, I talked to my dad this past Sunday. I told him you were back in town.”
“Yeah?” His eyes flitter with hope. “He’s willing to talk to me?”
“Petey, he’s willing to work with you. He loves you like his own, it’s just”—I shrug my shoulders—“his loyalty is to me.”
“As it should be.”
“I told him that you were back in town and swung by to apologize. I told him we cleared the air. Obviously, this was before I found out you were going around spreading rumors that we’re together—”
“I wasn’t spreading rumors—” Petey grumbles.
“But the point is, it’s water under the bridge. We’re okay.”
Petey licks his chapped lips again. They look red, swollen, and angry. “Are we?”
“What?”
“Are we okay? Or are we okay? Can I…talk to you now and then…if I need a friend?”
I glance at his pitiful puppy dog stare. “Yeah Petey, you can talk to me.” I smile as I pull out my phone.
“Who are you calling?”
I wave my phone at him. “A text. I’m asking Miles to pick you up some Chapstick at the store.” I point at his mouth. “Your lip licking always has, and always will, drive me fucking insane. I can’t watch you destroy your lips like this while you’re sick.”
He lets out a raspy chuckle. “Same ol’ Reese.”