The Road to Rose Bend, Naima Simone [jenna bush book club .TXT] 📗

like he was fighting for his life. Because in a way, that’s exactly what he was doing. Fighting for their happiness, their future. For them.

So no, he didn’t take it back. He repeated it. “Cherrie, stay with me.”

“Maddox,” she breathed, already shaking her head, but he crossed the space he’d deliberately placed between them, cupping her face and stopping the motion.

“Listen to me, baby,” he said, his thumbs sweeping over her cheekbones. “You love it here. I’ve watched you since you’ve been here. This town, Daryl and Belinda. You could be happy in Rose Bend if you just give it a chance.”

“Yes, for two weeks out of the year, Maddox,” she argued, circling his wrists. “For vacation. But moving here? That’s not realistic.”

“Why?” Urgency roughened his voice. “Why is it more realistic than living in Chicago? Stay here. With friends. With me. With me, Cherrie.” He gave her head a small shake. “With the man who wants you here. Who can’t imagine waking up tomorrow and not having you here. Who loves you.”

She stared at him, her lovely eyes glistening. Gently, she tugged at his wrists, and he obeyed the nonverbal demand, releasing her.

“Y-you can’t love me. We just met. It doesn’t happen like that.”

“You can’t tell me how I feel, baby,” he countered softly. “And if you want to stand there and claim that you don’t love me, too, then you’re in denial.” He tilted his head, lowered his voice. Gentled it. “You love me, Cherrie. And that scares the shit out of you.”

“No,” she murmured. Then more adamantly, “No, Maddox.” She lifted her hands between them, palms out. “Just because you say it doesn’t make it so. This is what I didn’t want. If I’m scared of anything, it’s this. I shouldn’t have let this go on. Let this happen.”

“Let what happen?” he growled. “Like I said on that hill two weeks ago, this was inevitable. You lost control of your health, of your life months ago. And now you’re so determined to regulate everything. Your diet, your lifestyle, your body. Well, some things don’t work like that. When life, fate, God, or whatever you believe in offers you a thing of beauty and faith, you don’t analyze it to death. You don’t question the hows or whys. You just leap. I’m asking you to leap with me, Cherrie. I swear I will never let you fall.”

“You think you’ll be there,” she rasped, a tear slipping down her cheek. “And I believe with all my heart that you want to be. But Maddox, you didn’t want the life your mother led. It’s why you settled here. You need a woman who will be here by your side day after day. Who you can make a home with. Like you said, someone you can wake up to. I am not her. I can’t be. I’ve tried being someone I’m not for another person, and it only ended in pain and disillusionment. You’ll only end up resenting me like Kenneth did.”

“Don’t compare me to that asshole. Would I love to have you here every day instead of on the road several weeks out of a month? Yes. That’s because I want to hoard every minute, every second I can spend with you. But it’s not the amount of time we spend together, it’s the quality of the time. It’s what we do with it. Baby.” He reached for her, but at the last minute, curled his fingers into his palm and lowered his arms, desperate to touch her, but not without her permission. “Your happiness, your success, your peace is more important to me than coffee together. I’ll take those weeks, days. I’ll build you a workshop behind the house. Or we can lease a shop in town. Whatever you need. Whatever brings you back to me. Let me be your home base.”

“I can’t.” She backed away from him, her face twisted in such pain that he nearly rocked back on his heels. “Don’t you get it? I can’t. Kenneth said he loved me, but he ended up despising my job, despising me. I got over that. But if you... Maddox, if one day I saw that same look on your face, I wouldn’t get over it. I don’t know if I could survive that. So maybe I am scared or a coward. But at least now, you don’t hate me for not giving you what I can’t. For being who I’m not. I’ll take that, Maddox. It’s not much, but I’ll take it.”

She turned, pushing out the storm door and onto the porch. For a moment, Maddox stared, frozen to the floor. But then he charged after her, his heart pried open, pain a living, breathing entity in his body. And still, he couldn’t let her leave like that.

“Cherrie.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, voice thick with the tears she hadn’t shed.

He didn’t reply, just enclosed her in his arms, and on a sob, she turned, burrowing against him. For several minutes, he held her. Imprinting the feel of her against his body. Branding her lavender and vanilla scent in his memory.

“I could never hate you,” he murmured. “Never.”

With that, he released her and stepped back. Cherrie didn’t move, standing there with her head bowed, her thick curls hiding her face from him. But eventually, she lifted her head, met his gaze.

“I’ll miss you.” She brushed her fingertips over his jaw. “Goodbye, Maddox.”

He should’ve gone back in the house, but call him a masochist, he remained on the porch, watching as she climbed into the RV. Waiting as the sound of the ignition turned over. Staring as she carefully turned the vehicle around in his huge yard and pulled away down the driveway. Only when she hit the edge of his property did he turn around.

But then a car door slammed.

“Maddox!”

He spun around, and his heart stopped. Then kicked into high gear, revving like the engine on his beloved bike.

Cherrie ran toward him across his lawn. Full out. Like the devil