Page 6 of Reckless With You

“Let me just talk first. Is that okay?”

“Okay. But do you want to sit down?”

“No. It’s fine. Please, let me continue.”

“Okay, babe.”

Babe. See? This is right.

“We’ve been best friends forever. You’re a big part of my world, and I honestly can’t picture my life without you. You’re everything to me. I’ve loved you forever.”

“I love you too, babe.”

Those words wrapped around me, and I couldn’t breathe.

“I really love you, Tobey. I know we’ve been dancing around this forever, so I figured maybe doing something big would push us to that next level. I figured I could do this first.”

I quickly undid the buttons of my coat and let it fall to the floor.

His eyes widened for a minute, his gaze raking down my body. I blushed, knowing this was going to work.

Tobey liked big moves. He was one of those people that did things in flashes, even if he was quiet about it sometimes.

This was going to work.

But when his gaze met mine, something broke inside of me.

My skin pebbled, but not from what I wanted it to.

No, it was the sheer mortification sliding through me. Because he wasn’t moving forward, he wasn’t looking at me with hunger or love in his gaze.

No, there was horror there. Confusion.

And maybe a little pity.

How? How had I misread the situation?

“Babe?”

I quickly reached down and put my coat on.

“Okay, so that was a little fast. Maybe I shouldn’t just show you the goods at first. Forget that happened. But we should talk.”

“Yeah, I think we should. Babe, I love you. But I don’t love you like that.”

I didn’t know the sound of a heart breaking could actually echo in your ears. It sounded like a gunshot, one ricocheting through my body as it shattered my organ into a thousand pieces. Acid pooled in my gut, and my head ached as I tried to comprehend exactly what he’d said.

I don’t love you like that.

Like…that.

Like I loved him.

This was a mistake.

One that I had talked myself out of. Something that I would try to bury in the back of my mind and forget. Because there was no way I could live through this without making another one.

“Babe.”