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My feet hit the asphalt, pounding almost as loudly as my heart. When I said I would chase my woman, this isn’t exactly what I had in mind, but what the hell. I would run to the ends of the Earth if it meant I got to catch her.

When she’s finally within reach, I grab her arm, and bring both of us to a complete stop.

“Kadence,” my breaths come out in puffs as the cold November air swirls around us. “Stop, please.”

I can feel her body trembling, and I don’t know if it’s because of the cold or because she’s upset.

“I can’t.” It’s barely a whisper.

“Can you look at me?” I ask. I loosen my grip on her arm, and give a gentle pull. I want to see her face, her eyes.

“Why did you do this?” Her head turns in my direction, and what I find is a face strewn with tears, and lined with turmoil. I don’t understand it.

“For you,” I reply, like it’s that simple. I know it isn’t, but when it comes to complications she’s the only one I would ever want to be complicated with.

“Why couldn’t you just let me be, Caleb?”

I shake my head. “Because I love you, Kadence, and I wanted you to know that.”

Kadence response is to huff. “Love? You call it love when it’s taken you three fucking months to manipulate me back into your life? You don’t know what love is, Caleb.” She snatches her hand from my grasp, and turns away from me. “I have to go.”

I’m caught between ‘what the fuck just happened’ and the need to go after her, but I suspect she doesn’t want me to.

So much for my big romantic gesture.

I run through our interaction on my walk back to the ballroom. My desire to go back inside has disappeared, and all I want is to go home. I’m halfway up the stairs when a voice behind me makes me stop.

“So that’s it?”

I turn and see Annabelle a few steps below me.

“You’re just going to let her go?”

I shrug. “I did the whole big romantic gesture, and it didn’t work. What else should I do?”

Annabelle lets out a laugh filled with incredulity, and a hint of derision. She really doesn’t like me anymore, even if I have all the respect in the world for her. She has been there for Kadence, helped her start over.

“You think what you did in there is considered a romantic gesture?”

I frown. “Yes, I actually do.”

“Then you’re as clueless as every man in this city.”

“Look, Annabelle, I appreciate that you brought her tonight, I really do, but I tried and it didn’t work. You can drop the ‘Caleb is a heartless asshole’ act. I’m done.”

“I never took you for someone who gave up so easily.”

Annabelle’s haughty tone triggers my annoyance.

“I tried Annabelle, and you know what, Kadence is the one who walked away, again. What more do you want from me?”

“To try harder,” she snaps. “You think putting her in the spotlight like that,” – she points to the doors of the hotel – “Is going to make her forgive you? If so, you really don’t know her at all.”

“I made a fucking mistake.” It’s my turn to snap. “And I have paid dearly for it from the moment Kadence walked out of my life. I can’t make her want me, or love me, or choose to forgive me.”

“She’s already done all of those things, Caleb! She’s just too stubborn to admit it.”

I stare at Annabelle, surprised by how loud she can scream for someone who reminds me of a pixie.