“You should get back in there, Alex.”
“I know.”
“You know I can’t go in there before you. I can’t walk away from you again. I’ve done that too many times and it nearly killed me the last time.”
“And what makes you think that I can, Lucas? What makes you think that it’s any different for me?”
He turned me to face him and his hand immediately grazed my cheek, gently easing my chin up to look at him. There it was…
Our connection.
Along with all our stolen moments placed in between us.
Then came a cold, distant allure in his eyes when he said…
“I wasn’t the one that said ‘Yes.’”
<>LUCAS<>
I love her.
I debated for weeks on whether to attend her engagement party or not. I looked at the invitation so many damn times I had memorized every word.
I sat in my truck for hours, debating on going inside or driving back home. It was near 10 PM when I finally managed to pull myself together enough to walk through the doors and into her future.
A future that didn’t include me.
At least not in the way that I had once hoped it would. We would always be best friends though, over the last few years our conversations and interactions became less frequent, shorter and almost non-existent. I knew every time she looked at me that I had broken her heart. I had hurt her in the worst ways possible and I had to live with knowing I did that. My hand was firmly placed in my pocket, holding the necklace that I had bought her after our first kiss. She wore it for years, until one day she didn’t.
It produced a false illusion that she was still mine.
The second I walked inside I saw her. I stopped dead in my tracks just to take her in, she was a vision. There was no beauty in this world like Alex. She was wrapped around her fiancé, his hands firmly locked in place on the woman that belonged to me. I claimed her a long time ago. She looked breathtaking, smiling at everyone with her long brown hair framing her mousy face and her big brown eyes that always made my heart skip a beat. She wore a long white dress that hung loosely on her body, always a tomboy at heart but still managing to make it look sexy. I remembered a time when she hated dresses, fighting with her mom because she kept buying them for her.
I couldn’t take my eyes off her, it took everything inside me not to make a scene. I couldn't control the internal battle that surfaced in the forefront of my mind, it was a tsunami of emotions. I loved her, I knew I loved her, I always have and I always will. She owned every part of me. My heart was hers since before I knew what her having it even meant. But she deserved to be happy, so I had to let her go.
It wasn’t fair to either of us.
Especially her.
She suddenly looked down at the ground as if she felt me. The look on her face exposed the girl I grew up with, the same girl that couldn’t hide her emotions from me. Her face frowned and her mouth parted, instinctively pulling away from her fiancé who didn’t pay her any mind. I didn’t know if she did it for my benefit or hers. Then she looked up and right at me. There was no wandering in her stare as she found mine from the corner of the room. We stood on the dance floor gazing at one another like there was no one else around us, like the room wasn’t filled with our friends and family. I didn’t care if anyone saw us. We had spent over two and a half decades worrying about everyone else’s feelings.
I saw nothing but pure unadulterated fear as she placed her hand on her heart, as if she were trying to hold it together. Slowly breaking her gaze from mine, our connection was broken. It mirrored our love. My feet moved of their own accord as I followed her out to the beach.
Our beach.
Grasping the necklace tighter in my pocket.
We exchanged words that will forever haunt me, adding to the pile of endless confessions, secrets, and betrayals. I inhaled the sweet and tantalizing smell of Alex, the lingering scent of her vanilla shampoo and the sunscreen that I knew she still put on every morning. The smell of her cherry lip-gloss brought me right back to childhood when she used to be mine.
I kissed her because I couldn’t not kiss her.
I pecked my lips on the only spot I knew wouldn’t be crossing the line, even though a line was never drawn.
She belonged to me.
Plain and simple.
Our emotions were running wild, trying to accept the bond our hearts will forever have. We laid our love out for each other years ago. I fought a battle I knew I could never win. The emotional turmoil ate away at me the closer we got to saying goodbye. That’s what happened when two halves of a heart come together and become one.
We would always be linked.
We were destined to be soul mates.
Star-crossed lovers.
When I spun her to look at me, the little girl with pigtails wearing boy clothes was gone and all that was left was…
The woman getting married to a man that wasn’t me.
Complicate Me
MEET M. ROBINSON
Wall Street Journal & USA Today Bestselling Author M. Robinson loves her readers more than anything! They have given her the title of the ‘Queen of Angst.’ With several bestselling novels under her belt, she loves to write and couldn’t imagine doing anything else with her life.
Her readers are everything to her and she loves to connect with her following through all her social media platforms, also through email! Please keep in touch in her reader group VIP on Facebook, if she’s not in there than she is on Instagram or her author Facebook page.
She lives in Brandon Fl with the love of her life, her lobster, and husband Bossman. They have one Wheaten Terrier, a Miniature Cockapoo, and a user Tabby cat. She is extremely close to her family, and when she isn’t living the cave life writing her epic love stories, she is spending money shopping or living boat life. Anywhere and everywhere. She loves reading and spending time with her family and friends whenever she can.
She truly appreciates her readers being on this writing journey with her. She thanks God every day that this is her life of telling stories to make people feel and disappear to another world.
Being an author is her first passion in life. It was what she was meant to do on this earth. Be a portal for characters who want their stories told.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Executive assistants & all around the reason I can write: Silla Webb & Heather Moss
Editor: Silla Webb
Cover Designer: Lori Jackson
Paperback, Ebook Formatter: Silla Webb
Publicist: Danielle Sanchez
Agent: Stephanie DeLamater Phillips
Bloggers/Bookstagrammers: Without you I’d be nothing. Thank you for all your support always.
My VIPS/Readers
Photographer: Andrew M Gleason
Cover Model: James Joseph
Street Team Leaders: Leeann Van Rensburg & Jamie Guellar
Teasers & Promo: Heather Moss & Silla Webb
My VIP Reader Group Admins:
Lily Garcia, Leeann Van Rensburg, Jennifer Pon, Jessica Laws, Louisa Brandenburger
Street Team & Hype Girls: You’re the best.
My alphas & betas:
Thank you for helping me bring this book to life.