Saylor (Signature Sweethearts #9) - Kelsie Rae Page 0,1
can’t. I need him. I love him.
“You want to leave and chase your dreams, and I’m okay with that, Owen. I really am. I’m your biggest fan, remember? I’ve told you that I’ll go. I’ll follow you. I’ll get a job. I’ll––”
“Say, you can’t honestly think I’d be able to live with myself if I let you waste your future for me. You need to stay here with your family. You need to go to college. You need to––”
Gritting my teeth, I shake my head. “Don’t tell me what I need. I need you! I want you. I’ve told you this a thousand times. Why won’t you even try a long-distance relationship? You won’t even try,” I repeat, my voice cracking a second time as the tears finally spill down my cheeks, winning the battle I’d been fighting. “Why won’t you try?”
“Because you deserve more than sitting around, wasting your time with an asshole like me who can’t put you first.”
“I don’t care about that,” I choke out. My arms pebble with goosebumps as the anger finally burns out and is replaced with an overwhelming grief that is crippling. I rub my hands along my arms in an attempt to keep the numbness at bay.
“I’m a piece of shit kid, Say. Do you know how guilty I feel? How selfish? You’re in love with a selfish bastard. You’re too good for me. You’ve always been too good for me. You deserve much more than the life you’d live if you waited for me. I can’t ask you to wait. It’s not fair to you.”
“That’s not true,” I argue. “And it’s not your choice to make. It’s mine.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” he corrects me, though I can see how much it pains him. I look up to see a different boy in front of me than the one I fell in love with.
“Don’t,” I plead. “Don’t break my heart, Owen. Please. I’m begging you.” Raising my hand to my mouth, I chew on the pad of my thumb as I watch the future I’d dreamed of slip through my fingers.
“I love the shit out of you, Say. But I promise that one day, you’ll find someone else who will be able to give you the life you deserve, not the shitty one you’d be destined to have if you were stuck with my sorry ass.”
I turn to stone as he presses his lips against my forehead for the last time. The heat from his mouth brings an onslaught of memories to the surface, hitting harder than a sledgehammer. Our first date. Our first kiss. The night I gave him everything. The night he promised we’d make it through anything. The night he got the call that he’d received a full-ride scholarship across the country, along with a position on the football team that promised he’d be the star. I remember everything. And I feel it all too. Until the pressure of his lips disappears.
The numbness I’d been keeping at bay finally overwhelms me, and I welcome it with open arms.
“I love you, Say,” he repeats on a breath. “I’m so sorry.”
“If you were sorry, you wouldn’t let me go,” I whisper.
“Say––”
“Bye, Owen. I really hope that when you look back at this moment, you’ll realize how badly you screwed up and that it’s the biggest mistake you’ll ever make.”
I stomp up the steps toward my front door and slam it behind me, closing the door on the love of my life and the future I’d thought we’d build together.
Because it’s obvious I was the only one who was willing to fight for it.
1
Saylor
“So…how was the first day of school, Miss Swenson?” Skye asks as I push the door to our home open. She moved in after she found out her husband was lying to her. He’d manipulated her into helping him receive his inheritance by marrying him––which she knew––but he left out a few key details. Turns out, he’s the selfish bastard she’d initially pegged him for. And it hit her. Hard.
She’s been my roommate ever since, and while the company has been amazing, it’s been torture to see first-hand how miserable Skye is. She even sent him divorce papers, but the giant asshole is apparently out of the country and can’t sign them. Which means she’s stuck being married to him for now, and I can’t even imagine how helpless that must make her feel.
It sucks having your heart broken, and to witness it happening up close and personal to