A Chance for Us (Willow Creek Valley Book 4) Page 23

  No, I need to go and get my chemotherapy, go back to my fucking miserably lonely life, and be the second choice that no one even wants.

  “Oliver, stop,” Maren says as I sweep the room, grabbing whatever is lying out.

  “For what?”

  She goes to touch my chest, but I move away. “Listen to me, please.”

  “You know what? I won’t. I won’t listen to another speech about how I’m a great guy but you want something else.”

  I’ve already heard this story.

  “I want to be with you.”

  “So much that you want an annulment?”

  “Yes! Don’t you see? I don’t want to be married because we can date.”

  “That makes no sense. I came here because I needed you. I . . .”

  “I love you,” she says quickly, causing me to rock back on my heels. If she loves me, then what the hell is the annulment for? No, she doesn’t love me. She’s grieving and has found a way out that will make her look good. Now, she can tell her family that I somehow tricked her into a marriage and she walked away.

  She probably came back here, talked to the first Oliver, and has a plan to make it work with him. Just like every other woman I’ve loved.

  Always good but never good enough.

  I laugh once. “You don’t know what love is.”

  She rears back. “I do know what love is, and I love you.”

  She’s unreal. “You don’t. You orchestrated lies. You lied to yourself about the first guy. You’re lying again about me. Well, I’m done lying and going along with your insane plans that only hurt people.”

  Her breath catches, and she steps back.

  “I knew it was a bad idea when you showed up at my resort, asking me to go along with your insane plan. I said no, but then I felt bad, thinking how hard it must be to love someone and lose them the way you were. Against my better judgment, I went along with it, but I always wondered . . .”

  Her eyes fill with fake tears. “Wondered what?”

  “How you could have feelings for me so quickly. You didn’t love the first Oliver, yet you were going to marry him. You didn’t love me, and you actually did marry me. Now you want to say you love me enough to end the marriage?” I shake my head in disgust at myself. I knew better, and yet, here I am, the fucking fool who thought she was capable of being in a relationship after her last attempt. I came here, ready to tell her I’m sick and needed her. Thank God I didn’t make that mistake. I toss the rest of my shit into my bag and tuck the annulment papers under my arm. “You can spare me whatever excuse you have. You got everything you wanted—your job, your family farm, and the happiness of your family.”

  “Please stop,” she begs quietly with tears running down her cheeks. “I’m not a liar and I’m not trying to hurt you. I was trying to fix this!”

  “I won’t listen to another woman feed me the bullshit lies. I’ve heard it twice before, and I’m not in the mood to hear it again.”

  I walk out of her room and throw the door open. “Oliver, wait!”

  I don’t. I just get into my car and leave.

  It’s time to go back to my home.

  Back to my life.

  Back to my family.

  Back to being alone, which is exactly how it should’ve been.

  Fuck love. Fuck cancer. Fuck it all.

  I drive through the night and pull into the resort a mess. I’m exhausted and hollow.

  Jack and Stella are walking toward the main entrance, smiling as she holds his hand. The people in this town are going to make me sick. I’m happy for my siblings, but I really don’t want to be reminded of all I just lost.

  I exit the car and head inside. At least my job makes sense. Today is an owners’ meeting I had planned to skip, but . . . here I am.

  When I enter, Grayson and Josh study me, look to each other, and then back to me. “What?” I snap.

  Josh clears his throat. “Nothing, just surprised to see you.”

  “You all right, man?” Grayson asks.

  “Do I look all right?”

  “You kind of look insane,” Josh answers.

  Stella’s voice comes from behind. “Who looks insane?” Our eyes meet, and she nods. “Oh, he does. Why are you here? I thought you were having a romantic weekend with your wife?”

  No time like the present and no patience left to give a shit.

  “Maren and I are getting our marriage annulled, and I have Stage I Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. I start treatment on Friday, and they’re hoping for a full recovery.”

  Stella’s mouth falls open before she covers it with her hands. “What?”

  “I have cancer.”

  Jack’s arm goes around her shoulders. “You saw a doctor?” he asks.

  Grayson and Josh are on their feet. Questions come in rapid fire from all four of them.

  “When did you find out?”

  “Why didn’t you tell us?”

  “Did you get a second opinion?”

  Stella moves toward me. “Who is taking care of you?”

  “Where is treatment?”

  “How long?”

  Stella wraps her arms around me. She lets go, tears swimming in her eyes. “Maren left you because of this?”

  I put my hand up, not willing to listen to this anymore. “I found out when I was in Georgia. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t know anything. It’s Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and in a lymph node in my groin. I’m very, very early in detection, which means I won’t have an overly complicated treatment plan. The oncologist is in Charlotte, so that’s where I’ll be going through treatment. I should need two rounds of chemo, and then they’ll do a PET scan to see if I need more or if they need to remove the lymph node.” I turn to my sister. “As for taking care of me, I’ll do it on my own, which is how it’s meant to be, and no, she didn’t leave me because of it. She doesn’t know.”

  “You didn’t tell her? Seriously?”

  “No, Stella, I didn’t tell her because right before I was going to, she gave me annulment paperwork. I really didn’t feel inclined to say anything about my current situation given she was ending things.”

  My sister turns to Jack. “It doesn’t make sense.”

  “Yeah, it makes perfect sense,” I say, drawing her attention back to me. “She got what she wanted and left. However, I don’t have the time to give a damn, I have other things that need my attention.”

  With that, I walk out of the room and head to my cabin to take a nap and get my shit together for Charlotte.

  Thirty-One

  MAREN

  There’s a knock on my office door, and I wipe away the tears that keep falling to see my ex there.

  “Can we talk?” he asks.

  I haven’t seen him since before we ended things. “Now isn’t a good time,” I say and go back to staring out the window.

  “Look, I’m sorry.”

  “I don’t want to hear it.”

  I am not mad. I don’t even care. I’m heartbroken, and he reminds me of the Oliver I want. The one I love. The one whose voice I can’t stop hearing tell me that he’s never anyone’s first choice.

  He doesn’t stop, he walks in. “Why are you crying?”

  I sigh heavily. “Why are you here? You left me, Oliver. Didn’t care when you walked away, so you don’t have to pretend to be now.”

  Oliver left me. He refused to listen, called me a liar, and stormed out. He doesn’t care about why I filed for the annulment any more than the man in front of me cared about why the wedding was so important to me.

  No, that isn’t fair. The Oliver I love isn’t uncaring. He was there for me, doing whatever he could to make me smile and stay strong. He didn’t run away until I pushed him.

  “I heard about your wedding. When I got back, it was all anyone could talk about.”

  “What do you care?”

  “I always cared about you. It wasn’t like that. We were rushing into things.”

  “I have a knack for that.”

>   “No you don’t,” he says, taking a seat. “You’re a planner, and you never do something without knowing the possible outcomes.”

  I laugh once. “Clearly, I’m broken then. I didn’t see this coming, that’s for sure.”

  “What has you upset?”

  “He left me,” I say, not sure why the hell I’m telling him. “I love him, and he left me. I really love him, though, with everything inside me. He saved me when you deserted me.”

  “I’m sorry I hurt you.”

  I shrug. “I’m not. If you hadn’t called off the wedding, I never would have fallen for him, and you were right, I didn’t love you. We should have never gotten engaged.”

  Oliver looks away. “Still, I could’ve stopped it sooner.”

  What-ifs are wholly irrelevant.

  What’s important is that I know exactly what love is now. I have felt selfless love at the core of my being. He was willing to sacrifice for me, without any expectations, and I’ve never had that before.

  “I appreciate you saying that, but it’s unnecessary. I’m not upset about it anymore.”

  “So, who left you and has you crying?”

  “The man I married instead of you.”

  One-point-oh and I spend the next fifteen minutes talking as I pour over the events of the last month and a half. I tell him about the wedding, Mark marrying us, Oliver and his past. It is nonstop talking, crying, and explaining my thoughts through the entire thing. It’s a little insane that he’s my sounding board, but I let it out with ten tissues, lots of tears, and a bottle of water on my desk I don’t remember getting.

  Oliver leans forward and puts his elbows on his knees. “It’s a lot to process and also very unlike you.”

  “I know!”

  “I think you need to talk to him because it sounds like he loves you and you blindsided him. Give him a day to calm down and then call him.”

  “I thought he’d see the gesture as something good.”

  He stands, giving me a thin-lipped smile. “He’ll come around.”

  I don’t think that’s true. Not with how angry and hurt he was when he left.

  “And if he doesn’t?” I ask, grabbing another tissue.

  “Then he’s not worth taking a chance on.”

  Oliver leaves, and I sit at my desk, feeling raw and upset. I grab my notebook, draw a line down the middle, and start my list to see if I should call him.

  Pro:

  Fixing it.

  Telling him all the things I wanted to say.

  Getting the love of my life back.

  Proving I’m not a liar and I meant how much I love him.

  Being happy.

  Con:

  He hangs up.

  He says more hateful things.

  He listens to what I have to say and still says no.

  I lose him forever.

  Remaining miserable.

  Great. It’s even.

  My mind is too fragile to see a way through this. I need a little more time to get my heart and head reconnected.

  I grab my phone from my purse to text Devney, only to find a text from Stella.

  Stella: Hey, can you call me? I know you guys aren’t in the best place, but . . . well, I got your wedding photos back, and also, I’d just like to talk.

  Me: Sure, can you talk now?

  Stella: Give me five minutes, and I’ll call.

  I watch the clock, seconds seeming to take longer than normal, and then the phone rings.

  “Hi,” I say, my throat scratchy.

  “You sound as good as he looks.”

  “Thanks. Listen, I don’t know what happened, but it didn’t go as I planned,” I explain. “I love your brother, and if you want to yell at me, all I ask is that you please give me another day or two, at least until I can stop crying for more than twenty minutes.”

  “Oh, Maren, I wasn’t going to yell.” Stella’s voice is full of sympathy. “I would if you didn’t sound like you’ve been crying for days, but . . . you do. However, I don’t understand what in the world is going on.”

  “Oliver made a few comments about being second choice and never being the guy, but I love him. He’s my first choice. So, I figured if we ended the marriage and dated instead, he would see that it was my way of choosing him instead of us being together because of a series of insane events.”

  “Right . . .” She inhales quickly. “Oh, no. You were giving up the fake marriage to have a real relationship.”

  See, she gets it. “Exactly!”

  “But the execution of it . . .”

  “Was bad,” I admit.

  “Have you . . . called him?”

  I chew on my lower lip. “I can’t. What he said, maybe he’s right. Maybe I am a liar, and I don’t know what love is.”

  Stella huffs. “He said that?”

  “I hurt him,” I say with the tears pooling again. “I think that maybe . . . we need time. Time to be apart and to see if this is real or if we were caught up in the fantasy. Maybe the end was inevitable.”

  Stella sighs. “I’m not sure what the right thing is, but you love each other, and I hope you can work it out.”

  The sad part is, I don’t know if that’s what should happen. Love doesn’t mean a relationship can work. We have distance, mistrust, and hurt between us, so can we even get past all of that? My heart wants to say yes, but my head is telling me I’m wrong.

  All I’ve done is listen to my heart, and look where that got me.

  “Time will tell, I guess.”

  “I guess. Do you want to see the wedding photos?” she asks.

  “You can send them over, and I’ll look at them when I feel emotionally stable,” I say with a laugh.

  “All right. Listen, I’m going to just say this and then never bring it up again. You two need to talk. I think a lot of this can be resolved, and . . . he needs you.”

  “He made it clear he doesn’t.”

  “He’s a man and dumb.”

  There’s a knock on my office door, and I lift my finger. “I have to go back to work. Thank you for everything, Stella. Truly, you became a part of my life and a sister when I needed one. If you ever need anything, please call.”

  “I will, and . . . well, goodbye.”

  “Bye.”

  I hang up, blink away the tears, and turn to the person waiting in my doorway.

  Thirty-Two

  OLIVER

  Jack is sitting on my couch, watching me pack and drinking a beer. One that I can’t have because it makes me sick.

  Thanks, cancer. I’m not even allowed to numb the hurt of heartache thanks to you.

  “You head out in three days?” Jack asks, knowing exactly what I’m doing since my annoyingly overprotective sister is coming.

  “Yup.”

  “And you’re staying for how many days?”

  I roll my eyes. “Six.”

  “Yeah, Stella said as much.”

  “Yup.”

  Jack makes a low grumbling noise and then walks over toward me. “Did you decide anything about Maren?”

  Tossing the shirt I was folding onto the bed, I turn to my brother-in-law. “Is there a reason you’re here, Jack?”

  “Yeah, apparently, it’s my damn job to fix all the broken Parkerson men. Trust me, it’s not a job anyone wants.”

  “I don’t need to be fixed.”

  He laughs. “Yeah, sure, you’re the pillar of strength and perfectness.”

  I grin. “Thanks for agreeing.”

  “That was sarcasm.”

  “This is me not caring,” I toss back.

  Jack shrugs. “Care or not, I was sent here to fix you because your sister thinks you’re a mess, and while my beautiful wife is meddling and frustrating, she’s often right. So, here I am.”

  Stella is a pain in my ass. “And as I said, I’m fine, so you can go and tell her you did a good job and get your reward.”

  “If it were only that easy . . .” He walks over to the table and grabs the large
manilla envelope. “Did you sign them?”

  I fucking hate my family. “No, I didn’t sign them.”

  “Why not?”

  Is he stupid? Yes, he is because he married my sister. Or maybe that makes him smart—whatever. “Because I’ve been busy.”

  “Too busy to sign your annulment paperwork? It takes like, what? Three seconds to scribble your name?”

  “I’d rather use the next three seconds to toss you out of my cabin.”

  Jack smirks. “You can try.”

  This is going one way, and since I doubt he’ll leave me the hell alone until he gets what he wants, I give in. “I love Maren, she doesn’t love me back, she filed for an annulment, and I have cancer. All of this adds up to disaster and the end of the relationship. I’m fine. She’s probably happy this is done so she can live her life according to her plan. Now, can you let me have some peace?”

  “No, because you’re an idiot if you think Maren doesn’t love you. We all saw it.”

  “She might have thought she did.”

  “No, dude, she does. I know she does.”

  “Oh, now you’re a mind reader, awesome, can you imagine what I’m thinking now?” I focus hard, and Jack laughs.

  Great. He missed that message.

  “Go back over the fight, Ollie.”

  I sigh heavily and replay the events again. Over and over, I see her face, hear the words, and hate her fake tears. The ache in my chest is so bad it feels as if I’m right back in her house going through it all over again.

  I was concerned about telling her about the cancer, hopeful she would stand by me and fight, but she had already given up.

  “Did you ask her why?”

  “Of course I did.”

  Jack raises one brow. “Really? It sounds like all you did was flip out and leave.”

  “I’m about to flip out on you.”

  “I don’t care,” Jack says and then leans forward. “Seriously, you didn’t get an explanation.”

  “I got served with the end. I don’t need the why.”

  “Then let’s settle it before you go in for treatment.” He gestures to the envelope still in his hand. “Sign it, and I’ll send it in. Then you can be done and move on with your life of being the weird dude who lives out here alone. It’s cool. Chicks will totally like that. Or you can just fuck the guests who come to escape. That way, they leave and you never have to worry about falling in love.”