Page 70 of It's a Brewtiful Day
“Yes, you were, and yet, that night, I felt like you were trying me on for size, if you will.” He took a sip of his drink and set it back down. “Like there was a battle you were fighting.”
I sighed, and weighed the words I wanted to share, deciding it truly was best to lay everything out and see where the cards fell. Pushing my shoulders down and uncrossing my legs, I let the words roll out of my mouth. “Because that’s what I do. I was seventeen when I learned my dad had cheated on my mom. That betrayal broke her heart, yet, for some reason, she stayed with him until she absolutely couldn’t anymore. She died a few years later, and deep down, I believe it was because of total heartbreak. Whether or not you believe it, that’s the story Cassie and I are sticking to.” I looked up at the ceiling. “As I entered the dating world, I had a string of boyfriends who thought nothing of either making me the mistress or finding a mistress, and usually thathappened within a few months of our relationships. I felt doomed to the same type of relationship my mother endured. However, after those disasters, I figured it was best to not let things get too serious. A couple of weeks, maybe three, four if they hadn’t irritated me too much, but then it was time to let them go.”
“Before they could hurt you.” A sweet and deeply sympathetic smile stretched out across his face.
“Precisely.”
“It makes sense.” He leaned closer, a comfortable kind of close. “I’m sorry the guys you were with didn’t treasure what they had, but in a way, I’m also thankful.”
I narrowed my gaze at him. “Why?”
“Because I get the honour of showing you I’m not like those other guys. I’ve been hurt in relationships, too, but I’ve learned so much on what to do, what not to do, and how to read people to make the best choices. Even better, I’ve learned what my boundaries are, and it’s not pineapple on pizza.” Shaking his head, he laughed and fixed his gaze on me. “You don’t like pineapple on pizza, do you?”
I shook my head, my own grin trying desperately hard to sneak onto my face. “Nope. And no tomatoes either.”
His face lit up. “Because they get squishy when cooked?”
“Yes.” Finally, someone who got me.
His shoulders relaxed and rolled inward as he rested his arms on his thighs. “But seriously, I have scars too. I’ve been cheated on, so I understand that pain. It hurts. It stings. It makes you question everything.”
“Yeah, it does.”
“And I vowed to never be that guy. Communication is so important.”
“That’s admirable, but something you didn’t follow through with.”
“How’s that?” His pitch rose as he barked out a laugh.
“You didn’t talk to me either.”
“You shot me down first, and I tried on several occasions, but I couldn’t form the words. I didn’t want to scare you or pressure you into anything. And I most certainly didn’t want to push you away. I’d watch you walk by in the mornings, and again when you finished work. I saw you at the Little Free Library adding in new titles and spotted you and Chad at the fire station.”
“Oh?”
He crossed his heart. “I swear I’m not a stalker.”
“Neither am I.” A weak smile playing on the edges of my lips turned into a shy grin as I tucked my chin down.
There was a heavy inhale and his hair flopped over his forehead as his head tipped downward. “I don’t have a lot of friends, and I’m a bit of a loner,which I’m okay with. My point is, after I saw you chatting with your brother-in-law at the firehall, I stopped by.”
My breath caught in my lungs.
“Alice is not the best person to chat with and Bryan’s out of town a lot, but I needed to talk to someone man-to-man, and he was super insightful.”
The hairs on the back of my head rose up in anticipation. “What did he tell you?”
“Nothing.”
“What? Really? Some days I can’t get that guy to shut up.”
Elliot looked over at me. “Well, on anything but you, he was chatty, however with regards to you, all he said was to be careful. And not for my sake, but for yours. That, and he may have threatened my life within a few inches if I dare hurt you.”
My heart hammered loudly in my chest, pulsing blood through my veins at high speed which threatened to drown out his words. Inhaling sharply, I begged my body to calm down.
“And I get that a relationship is going to test all your issues and have you wanting to call it quits well before any difficult moments, but you’ll have to trust me a little. I can help you work through them, and if I can’t, I can stand beside you in the storm and hold you close.”
“You’ve already done that.” The words fell out softly as the tears slowly blurred my vision, but I meant it. If he hadn’t been there, I don’t know how Iwould’ve survived the night. Others laughed at my fear, and yet, he never did.