“Are you fucking kidding me?” she shouted. “I caught you cheating and you’re accusing me of doing something wrong?”
“I wasn’t cheating on you!” He groaned in frustration, then paused. “How did you even know where I was?”
“Your girlfriend called and left a message with her room number.”
“She’s not my girlfriend!” he shouted, pounding his fist into the wall.
“You’re telling me you weren’t screwing her?”
“No! If you would just listen to what I’m telling you, you’d know that!”
Suddenly she had a moment of doubt. What if her insecurities were causing her to overreact? God knew Megan and Blair had her worked up . . . not to mention the memories of her father. Noah and the woman had both been fully clothed. But this was clearly not the first time they’d met. The woman had accepted his friend request while they were on their trip. “You knew her already. Have you screwed her before?” He started to protest, but she pointed her finger in his face. “Think carefully about your answer.”
Fear washed over his face. “Libby.”
Oh, God. “Answer the question, Noah.”
“Yes. But it was last January. There is nothing going on now. I swear.”
“You swear. You swear!” Her voice broke and she shoved his chest, but he was so much larger he barely moved, which only pissed her off more. “You lied to me!”
“Only about my job, Libby, but I was trying to get it back. For you. So we could start our new lives together.”
“How can I believe you?”
“What reason have I given you to not trust me?” He grabbed his head with both hands. “Oh, my God, Libby! I love you! Can’t you see how much I love you? I would sooner die than cheat on you. You have to believe me!”
“Why do I have to believe you?” she demanded. “So I can look like even more of a fool?”
His eyes lit up like a struck match. “You’re just looking for a reason to break up with me.”
“Excuse me? Are you really trying to pin this on me?”
“I’ve never given you a reason to not trust me. Not one.”
“You lied to me about your job!”
“I didn’t lie, Libby! I just hadn’t told you because I was hoping to get it back. You kept telling me how proud you were of me and I knew I needed to get my job back to take care of you. I didn’t want you to look at me with the same look of disapproval I always see in Josh’s eyes. I was planning to give the stupid account to Josh as a peace offering. For us.”
She shook her head, more confused than ever.
“This is what you do,” he said, his voice tight with anger. “You sabotage your relationships so they’ll never work out. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
“Are you kidding me? You think you have me all figured out, Mr. I-Sleep-With-Every-Woman-I-Can-So-I-Don’t-Have-To-Commit.”
“You’re wrong about one thing,” he said, quietly. “I made a commitment to you.”
“I wished you’d never committed to me at all.”
His mouth dropped open. “You don’t mean that.”
“You are incapable of making a commitment, Noah McMillan, and I refuse to stick around so you play me for even more of a fool.”
He couldn’t have looked more hurt if she’d pulled out a gun and shot him. “My father was right,” she said, her voice breaking. “No man will ever stay with me. They lie to get what they want, and once they get it, they’re gone. I’ll save you the trouble of slamming the door in my face.” She grabbed the handle of her suitcase again. “I’ll just leave first.”
She rolled her case into the hall, fully expecting him to follow her, but he didn’t. Disappointment sucked the air out of her chest, making her light headed. What was she so upset about? She wanted him to leave her alone, right?
She hit the button for the elevator, silently pleading with him to follow her, to fight for her. To convince her she was wrong.
Then she heard him call out to her. “I thought you said you hadn’t seen your father since you were a baby.”
She turned around to see him standing in the hall outside their room. “I guess that makes us both liars.”
The elevator doors opened and she walked inside with her suitcase. When she turned around, Noah stood in the hall about thirty feet away. “Don’t leave me, Libby. Please.”
“Wrong answer,” she whispered. But damned if she knew what the right one was.
Then the elevator doors closed, Noah’s pain-stricken face disappearing behind it, and she felt more alone than she ever had in her life.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The elevator doors closed and Noah felt the bottom of his world drop out—the sucking void threatening to swallow him whole. Did he run after her? Did he let her go?
You don’t deserve her, the little voice in his head told him. You don’t deserve to win her back. This was how it was always going to end.
Somehow he found himself back in their room. The bed was made. The used towels replaced. All evidence of her was gone.
It was as though the last few days—the absolute best days of his life—had never happened.
He wasn’t sure he could go on without her.
What the fuck did he do?
Part of him was devastated that she thought the worst of him. He wanted to be angry that she didn’t trust him, but how could he blame her? She was right. He’d never told her about quitting. How had she even found out?