Page 76 of What I Like About You

“So then let’s find a way to make this work. Talk to the lady in New York, ask her if not being in Atlanta is really the worst thing.”

“Again, you have me making all the sacrifices here. You won’t even consider leaving here?”

“I can’t go back to Atlanta.”

“Can’t or won’t, Tripp?” she snapped.

“Does it matter?" he asked, his tone sounding more sarcastic than he intended. But he was hurt, and he didn’t know how to stop that from showing. “You won’t seem to even entertain any other idea.”

“Instead you just want me to give up everything I’ve worked for?”

“Zara…”

“I have to pack,” she said, sounding resigned. The comment caught him off guard and he didn’t know what she was trying to say. Was she walking away?

“Pack?”

“We leave first thing in the morning. I need to get myself organized. So, you should probably just take me back to the resort.”

“Zara, don’t do this.” He stepped closer to her, but she stepped back, keeping the distance between them, just like she had the other night. He could see her withdrawing from him, putting those walls back up. He needed to find a way to stop it, but he had no idea how. He was in over his head, and it felt like the water just kept rising. “Don’t give up. We can figure this out.”

“Maybe this was a mistake, Tripp. Maybe we should have just left well enough alone.”

“Don’t say that. You don’t mean that.”

“I think it’s time you took me back to the Indigo Royal,” she said, a sad look on her face. The sparkle in her eye was only barely there, clouded over by something that almost looked like regret. “Or do I need to find my own way?”

“You really think that little of me?” he asked, surprised by her tone. When she didn’t answer, his heart sank. “Well, I guess that’s my answer. Let’s go.”

* * *

The hikeback up to the car was silent and painful. Other than the sound of the rubber of their shoes meeting the concrete and the sound of the waves in the background, neither one of them had made a peep. The car ride wasn’t much better, but at least there they’d had the radio to fill the void their silence left. Although Zara was sure that no amount of classic rock could drown out the sound of her heart breaking.

She managed to hold her tears the entire way back to the resort. She wasn’t going to allow herself to cry in front of him. There was no way in hell she would let him see her break down, to know just how much she was hurting. This week had been all of her fantasies come to life, and it was all being ripped away from her. The sting of the tears was almost too much to handle as they reached the front of the Indigo Royal, and it was all she could do to pile out of the Jeep and still hold it together. Dalton hadn’t even put the vehicle in park before she leapt out and made a beeline for her room.

“Zara!” she heard him call after her, but she didn’t stop. She couldn’t. If she did, he would see all her pain. She needed to be strong, to be the lady-boss that she was. She didn’t need him. She had everything she’d ever wanted waiting for her back in Atlanta, thanks to her own hard work.

Everything but the love of Dalton Sutherland.

The door to her suite slammed shut behind her with an exceptionally loud bang. Had it not been the middle of the afternoon, she might have worried about waking someone up, but if they were asleep right now, too bad. She had a broken heart to deal with.

Stomping into her room, she pulled her suitcase out from the closet and flung it onto the bed with everything she had. The large, empty case bounced and flew off the bed from the amount of force she put behind it, landing with a thud that rivaled the sound of the door closing. Even more agitated now, Zara picked it up again and threw it back onto the bed, making sure it stayed put this time. Unzipping it, she tore it open and looked around at the room, unsure exactly where to start with all her stuff.

“What in tarnation?” Antwan asked, bursting into the room, his own rarely heard southern accent peeking out. “Girl, explain yourself.”

“Nothing!” she snapped, before turning on her heel and heading into the bathroom.

Her toiletries were strewn across the counter, left in haste after rushing around trying to be ready on time for prom last night. Prom. Fuck, why did she have to think of that? She was mad. She didn’t want to think of how amazing last night had been. But that was before.

Before Dalton ruined it. Before he had asked her to just give up everything. Before he accused her of being a gold digger. He should know better than anyone that she knew the real him. That she would love him even if they lived in a cardboard box. She had been the one he cried to when his mother passed. It had been her that he told about how he was worried that he’d never grow up to be the man his mother wanted him to be. She was the one who had been his secret keeper, the one who knew all his hopes and dreams and held them as closely as she held her own.

Just like he should know her better than anyone. Know her hopes and dreams and how hard she would have worked to get as far as she had. He knew the torment she faced in high school and how much that had messed with her. That her success was all because she had worked hard to put that all behind her and to overcome all the people who told her she’d never be anything but the fat loser. He’d believed that she’d had it in her then, and she knew that he knew it now too. She didn’t care that they’d only been back in each other’s lives for a few days—he knew her. Always had, always would.

“Gahhhh!” she screamed, sweeping her arm across the counter, sending all her cosmetics flying.

“Whoa! Just what did that lipstick do to you?” Antwan asked. He peeked his head around the corner, looking like he was afraid to get too close.

“Nothing!”