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We walk through the venue but I excuse myself at the end, leaving Daniel and my mom to continue their questions to the event planner.
As I drive down the road, I see a sign for the beach that Seven had mentioned that the turtles would be at today for our first date. A date that would no longer be.
I pull into the parking spaces and get out.
I find a spot high on the beach where I can see all the way down the beach.
I watch as researchers take notes and prepare cameras, essentially busy work as they wait.
"Is this spot taken?" I hear a deep, raspy voice say beside me.
I look over to find Seven towering over me.
"No, it's open," I say. "How did you know I'd be here?"
"What do you mean? I came here for the turtles," he says, taking a seat next to me in the sand.
"Oh…" I say, feeling stupid that I assumed he stalked me here.
I sort of liked the idea that he followed me here.
"I'm kidding. I saw Rita's truck and she told me that you were driving it this morning to get breakfast with your family. When I saw it parked here, I figured I'd stop. I'm surprised to see Daniel let you out of his sight. You didn't stay at the hotel with him last night?"
I glance over at him and give him a raised brow as if to ask if he's seriously asking me if I slept with Daniel last night. I took Rita's truck so he already knows the answer.
"Sorry, it's none of my business what you do with your fiancé."
"He's not my fiancé… not yet anyway. We have a lot to work out."
"What does it mean that you have a lot to work out?"
"It means that we need to get home and think through everything. We've been a part for eight months and…"
"And he doesn't do it for you. What more do you need to know?"
"I put eight years into this relationship. I can't just walk away from it. I need to know if it's still viable. I can't do here. Once we get home, he and I can discuss everything and figure it out."
"Why can't you do that here? What's holding you back?" he asks, but we both know what it is.
"Being here is too big of a distraction."
"Does it have anything to do with me?"
"Of course it does, but that doesn't matter. You have a family that needs you."
"Brynn, Josslin and I aren't getting back together if that's what she told you is going to happen. I could never trust her again, and even if I could, too many years have passed and she deliberately kept my daughter from me to hold onto my brother."
"Even still, you already admitted that you're not interested in a relationship and that you haven't had one in almost twenty years. I already put eight years into a relationship Seven, I can't do that again. I need someone who wants the same things as I do."
"I can give you that. I can give you a relationship if that's what it takes."
"You're only saying that because it's what I want, not because it's what you want."
"I just want to make you happy. Whatever that means."
"Exactly. You don't want this. And someday one of us will have to give in and then that person will resent the other. I'll resent you because I won't want to force you into getting married and having kids, or you'll resent me for pushing into a life you never wanted. We can't both have what we want."
"It seems as though you've made up your mind," he says.
