Page 78 of What I Like About You

Chapter Twenty-Six

Dalton boundedup the stairs of Purple Rain two at a time, full of anxious energy. Watching Zara storm off the way she had when he pulled up to the hotel moments ago made his heart shatter. He’d lost her once, and he couldn’t lose her again. He couldn’t just let her walk away. What he had said had been selfish. He shouldn’t have assumed that it would be so easy for her to just move down here. He should have asked her what she thought about the idea or how she saw this all playing out. Instead, he’d gone halfway caveman on her and just made the decision for her.

When he got to suite 1736, he took possibly the deepest breath he’d ever taken and raised his hand to knock on the door. Just before his fist made contact with the door, he heard Zara’s voice, ranting, and he stopped dead in his tracks.

“You know what? I’ve always wondered what it would be like to fuck Tripp Sutherland, and now I know. So I can go back to Atlanta with that knowledge, live the rest of my life knowing that yes, he is indeed a fantastic lay,” her voice carried through the door.

Dalton’s blood ran cold as he took in her words. “Always wondered what it would be like…is indeed a fantastic lay…” There was no fucking way. She couldn’t mean that. After all that, had she really just been playing him, getting some kind of revenge on him for what he’d said?

Spinning around, he headed back for the stairs. If he’d thought he’d been angry before, well, that was nothing. Or maybe what he was feeling wasn’t anger, but betrayal. He’d come here to apologize. To tell her that they’d find a way to work it out because he loved her and he was willing to do whatever it took to make them a reality. Only to hear that she hadn’t really been on the same page.

Halfway down the first flight of stairs he froze. No. He couldn’t do this. This is exactly what got them into this mess in the first place. One of them overhearing and not confronting the other. Not this time. This time would be different. She was going to know that he knew just how she really felt. And just how he really felt in return. So back up the stairs he went, his long strides making quick work of the short distance until he was back in front of suite 1736, banging on the door.

“Tripp,” Zara said, her eyes wide as she opened the door.

For all the things he had been thinking a moment ago, his mind was suddenly blank. Her tear-stained cheeks were accompanied by red puffy eyes, and so much of him wanted to just pull her into his arms and kiss the pain away. But she wasn’t the only one in pain. He was hurting too. But she wasn’t thinking about that, now was she? No, she was too busy bragging that she’d finally gotten her revenge.

“I was coming here to apologize, but now that I know what you were really after, maybe all I need to say is ‘you’re welcome,’” he sneered.

“I don’t know what you think you heard—”

“What I think I heard? Oh no, Zara, I heard it. Clear as day. ‘I’ve always wondered what it would be like to fuck Tripp Sutherland, and now I can go back to Atlanta, knowing that he is a fantastic lay.’ Did I get that right?” he asked, disdain dripping from his words.

“Now seems like a fantastic time for a shower,” Antwan said, slowly backing out of the room. “I’ll just leave you to it.”

They both just stood there waiting as Antwan made a quick exit, shutting the bedroom door behind him. Once they heard the shower running, Dalton stepped inside the suite, turning to glare at Zara once he was fully inside.

“I didn’t mean it like—”

“Like what?” he cut her off. “You didn’t mean it like that? Convenient excuse, don’t you think? Just like I didn’t mean it at prom.”

“You’ve been telling me all week you didn’t,” she said, her voice sharp.

“I didn’t. And yet, you threw it back in my face not two hours ago!” he reminded her.

“I was upset. We both said some terrible things, and I was trying to process it all.”

“No, Zara, you said terrible things,” he pointed out, his anger hovering just above the surface. How was it that she had the power to affect him this much with just a few simple words? “I might have been selfish in asking you to blindly give up everything while I kept my perfect little life, but you…you’re the one who called us a mistake.”

Zara swallowed hard, and Dalton could see the emotions raging in her eyes. She looked at him, swallowing again, before she carefully said, “Letting you back in was not a mistake, Tripp. These last few days have been better than I could have ever imagined. But they are not a future.”

“Yet you still won’t consider finding a compromise. Help me figure out what that future is.”

“A compromise? Just when did you offer up one of those? All you did was ask me to give up everything I worked for. To just drop my entire life because you came calling,” she huffed out a breath. “And when I made a counteroffer, you turned me down flat.”

“Because your counteroffer was a life I left for a reason! A life I can’t go back to!”

“I’m gonna ask you again, can’t…or won’t?” she snapped, the tears that had been forming now streaming down her cheeks. “Because from where I’m sitting, the only thing preventing you from returning is yourself. Your family wants you to come back. Your friends want you to come back. I fucking want you to come back. But you won’t go.”

“I can’t!” he shouted back. How much clearer did he have to be that he couldn’t return to his family. That there was no way that after everything that had happened, everything he knew about his father, that he could go back there. Even with the offer of his own sports franchise looming in the not-so-distant future. No matter how much the idea of one day running Southland Holdings nibbled at the back of his mind, as long as Big D was around, he just couldn’t do it.

“You keep saying that, but I don’t get it. I understand why you left, and I understand why you don’t want anything to do with Big D. I respect that. But he is not Atlanta. Plenty of people live in the same place as family that they don’t associate with anymore. You can come back and not have anything to do with him. Or maybe, just maybe, you could extend to him some of that forgiveness that you’ve been seeking from me.”

Dalton took a step back, as if her words had been a physical object thrown in his direction. She wasn’t really suggesting he forgive his father, was she? And just how the hell did they get here? This had nothing to do with Big D. This was about them. Except, there wasn’t a them anymore. She’d made that perfectly clear this afternoon in her refusal to do anything other than try to convince him to come back to Atlanta. Even after him asking for a compromise multiple times, she wouldn’t budge.

“Don’t change the subject. This has nothing to do with him.”

“Doesn’t it? Isn't he the reason you ran away? The reason you won’t consider coming back? The reason you’re saying there can’t be an us?”