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He lowered his gaze to the counter and traced the patterns on the stone slab. “You’re a fucking idiot.”
I shrugged. He wasn’t wrong.
Punctuating his words with his finger, he lifted his eyes to mine. “When are the two of you going to talk?”
I rested my forearms on the island, leaning forward supporting myself. “Look, I’m doing my best here. It’s like a fucking minefield with her. Nothing I do or say is ever right!”
“Come on,” he prompted, “not even you can be that blind.”
I straightened. “This is so fucking hard! I don’t want to lose her, so it seems like I always have to choose. Friendship only or relationship that will inevitably fail.”
He shook his head.
I shifted my glance to the kitchen window where I saw the stars were gleaming brightly. “I don’t know how to defeat the fear. In her or me.”
He tipped his head toward the back door. “Come on.”
Grabbing a couple hoodies, I grabbed a six-pack and we went out to the back patio. I lit a fire in the firepit and we just sat there staring up at the stars.
Dominic gestured with his beer. “She chose you a long time ago, put all her trust in you, and now you have to seal the deal.”
I shook my head. “Can’t.”
He sighed. “Why not? Because it requires more than a few words?”
Ripping my gaze away from the brilliant stars overhead, I glared at him. “You’ve only been around her once in a while. I’ve talked to her at least twice a day every day since she moved to New York. Did you? Did you hear her disparage herself and the fact that she was ever born? Did you hear her sobbing that there’s too much of her? Because I have. I heard it every damn day. And I tell her she’s wrong, because she’s perfect and beautiful and you know what she does?”
“She laughs at you,” he whispered.
“She fucking laughs until she cries! The whole idea of being wanted by someone is so foreign to her that she has no idea how to accept the compliment even when I truly mean it.”
He shrugged. “So, stop complimenting her. Take how she looks off the table. Talk to her about other shit until you find an opening.”
I scoffed. “When I get an opening, she asks me a question I have to answer honestly and then it kills her.”
He winced. “Yeah, that Neve thing is hella stuck in her head.”
I threw my hand up. “Jesus, fuck, she talked to you about her too?”
He nodded and took a long pull of beer.
I let a stream of curses fly, standing and slamming the bottle onto the table. I needed to walk. I needed to scream!
“It’s not that you slept with someone,” he said softly, “it’s that you chose someone who was basically perfect.”
I spun around. “No! She wasn’t. She was boring and basic. So damn small I was afraid to crush her just holding her hand. I ended up taking her arm because I almost stepped on her. Check the footage.” Dominic turned away awkwardly. “What?”
He nodded. “I’ve seen it.”
I threw a hand on my hip. “What?”
His eyes met mine. “Phoebe found the footage. She’s been torturing herself with it. I deleted it from her hard drive when I was in there with her earlier.”
“Fuuuuck!” I roared.
When I dropped back into my chair, I felt Dominic set his hand on my shoulder. “I know you two will find your way through this. I want my two favorite people to stop dicking around and finally make it permanent.”
I felt my hand clutch at my chest to try to soothe the ever-present ache. “I want to be with her so damn much.”
