My Fiance Kissed My Best Friend on Our Fourth Anniversary novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: No Terms

The tourists clapped, and I did not hear them until Eli let me go.

My face was burning.

The superintendent studied the ceiling with great interest.

A girl in a pink hat whispered, "Is he her boyfriend?" and her mother said, "Shh."

Eli took my hand and walked me out the back door onto the rim path.

The afternoon was blue and cold, and the lake lay at the bottom of the cliff, enormous and still.

He stopped at the stone wall and let go of me.

"I need to say something," he said. "And you're not going to like how I say it."

"Try me."

"I'm not asking for anything."

I blinked.

"I'm not asking you to stay. I'm not asking you to leave. I'm not asking about August, or September, or the fellowship, or your father's shop."

He kept his eyes on the water.

"I said I'd have waited. That was true. But I'm not putting a hand on the scale. You've had enough people deciding your life for you, and I will not be one of them."

I stared at the side of his face.

"So you're giving me a choice."

"Yes."

"You hate that."

"I hate it more than anything I've done this year."

I laughed, and it turned into something wet.

"Eli. Look at me."

He did.

"Everyone in my life has asked me for something," I said. "Brett asked me to wait. Kendra asked me to stay small. Sheila asked me to be quiet. I have spent four years being asked."

"I know."

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