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Heath shook his head. “You’re missing the point.”
My jaw tightened. “This is your reception. You should be enjoying yourselves.”
Marley paused. “I would be enjoying myself if you weren’t being such an idiot.”
A fast song came over the speakers.
Sarah approached us with a smile, seemingly oblivious to what was going on. She grabbed Marley’s hand. “Come dance with us.”
Sarah pulled Marley onto the dance floor, leaving me alone with Heath. “Spare me the lecture.”
Heath chuckled.
“And stop laughing at me.”
“I have to say it’s nice being on the other side.”
The tension made the muscles in my neck tight. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“I messed up with Marley too.” Heath moved to stand next to me.
“I didn’t mess up,” I insisted.
“You just kicked the love of your life out of your inn.”
I let out a shaky breath. I turned down her proposal, and now I’d kicked her out on Christmas Eve. “I’m an asshole.”
Heath shot me a look. “That’s what we’ve been trying to tell you.”
“I thought I was shielding her from my parents. If she’s not here, they can’t hurt her.”
“Is that what you said?” Heath asked reasonably.
I winced. “I was angry about her posting pictures on social media. My mom saw it and took it as her invitation to show up here uninvited.”
“You blamed Fiona, when that should have rested solely with your parents.”
“She can’t possibly want me. Not after seeing that public display. That was the Matthews. Who’d want a part of that?”
“Did you let her figure that out for herself, or did you make that decision for her? The same way you said no to her proposal.”
“It would have been stupid to quit school and marry me. What did I have to offer her? She would have resented me eventually.”
“The point is that you didn’t let her make that decision then, and you’re not letting her make decisions now.”
That caused me to pause. Was I making the same mistake I had last time?
“That’s not how relationships work. You’re supposed to communicate and come to decisions together. It’s never going to work if you unilaterally make all of them for her.”
“I didn’t think that was what I was doing.”
Heath gave me a look. “That’s fairly obvious. And I thought I was an idiot.”
“Hey,” I said with a warning note in my tone.
Heath held up his hands. “I call it like I see it.”
If Heath was right, I’d been pushing Fiona away my entire life. I didn’t think I was good enough for her, so I protected her by rejecting her before she could realize it. But what if I was wrong? What if I was good enough? What if I wasn’t my parents? The headache was in full force again, and I couldn’t reach for any of the answers.
