Page 57 of Forever Only Once

Chapter 12

Cross

This was it.This was the culmination of over a decade of friendship, and so many fucking issues that I could barely breathe.

I was finally going to end it.

The fact that it sounded like a relationship beyond what I had with Chris just told me that I had been in too deep with this business partnership and whatever friendship we’d had.

Because Chris wasn’t my friend. He hadn’t been for a long while, and the fact that I was just coming to realize that told me that I’d had rose-colored glasses on or my head down to the point where I was a fucking idiot. And anything that happened from here on out was something I would have to deal with.

I had talked with Liam and contacted a lawyer. We were going to dissolve the partnership, and I would see if I’d have to sue my former best friend.

But at the moment, I needed to make sure that we could talk for at least a few moments. I needed to ask him what the hell he’d been thinking. Chris wasn’t violent, so I wasn’t worried about that. And the accounts were locked down, so he couldn’t fuck up anything there. At least not any more than he already had. But I wasn’t going behind his back like he had done to me for so long. I needed to talk to him.

I had to make sure that I wasn’t the one without a soul after this.

My lawyer had advised me against going into too much detail, and that was fine with me. I just needed to talk to Chris. I needed to see what he would say.

I’d deal with the rest later.

I didn’t know what to do beyond that, but that would come.

Besides focusing on my failings at Chris Cross Furniture, and the fact that I actually still had work to do, I also had Hazel on my mind.

We’d had six dates. Six outings where I was getting to know her in every way possible.

I hadn’t been expecting her, and I honestly didn’t know if I should have expected her.

Everything about what we had was completely new to me, and I fucking loved it.

I was just trying to figure out exactly what the hell I was going to do about it.

With my professional life up in the air, going out with Hazel felt like a touchstone to me.

It also felt like, if I wasn’t careful, I could fuck it up and hurt her more than she’d already been hurt.

I didn’t know every detail of what had happened between her and her ex-husband. It wasn’t my right to know until she was ready to tell me. However, despite not knowing the details, I wanted to find the asshole and murder him.

No, that was going a little too far. But I did want to kick his ass. How dare he hurt such a kind person? How dare he hurt anyone for that matter? I saw the shadows in her eyes when she spoke of him. How strong she tried to be as she rolled her shoulders back and pretended that she was fine. And while I knew she was better in every sense of the word she needed to be, there was nothing good about what the man had done.

But she trusted me. And that trust meant everything. I had the trust of my family, the comfort of knowing that no matter what happened, they could lean on me and vice versa in case the worst ever happened.

I knew that when Arden was sick, she could come to me. When Prior’s anxiety got to be too much, and he couldn’t laugh through his issues, he could come to me. When Macon didn’t want to talk but just wanted to sit and focus on what he needed to do, he could come to me. And when Nate kept his secrets, he knew he didn’t need to tell me. I didn’t need to know them unless he wanted to tell me. Regardless, he could and did always come to me.

My parents trusted me to be the head of the household when they moved away. And while I didn’t begrudge them finding new jobs and a life that worked for them, I also realized I was fine being who I needed to be for them. Even if I was still figuring it out.

Despite all of that, I didn’t know if I’d ever had anyone in my family truly see me as someone to lean on.

Hazel trusted me. She trusted me with where she lived, with her body, and maybe, if I got deep about it, her heart.

Hell, for someone who needed to have control and to be protective of everyone around them, the fact that she did that for me meant that I couldn’t fuck this up. I couldn’t be so focused on my work that I hurt her.

And I’d be damned if I ever hurt her. Thomas had hurt her physically and emotionally. That wasn’t going to be me. No matter what.

I didn’t know what would happen between us, didn’t even know what I wanted from the relationship. I sure as hell hadn’t been looking for her when we crossed paths, but it’d happened, and I wasn’t going to take it for granted.

First, however, I had to deal with whatever the fuck was going on with work.