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Tori’s lips pressed together. She threw a hand over her eyes and shook her head. “Do you even want more?”

“Honestly?”

“Yes.” Tori wrinkled her nose, making eye contact again. “Please just be honest.”

“I don’t have the mental capacity to think about this right now.” Miranda was backed into a corner. She hadn’t anticipated that Tori would force her to answer this, not tonight of all nights. “I wish you would stop pushing me on it.”

Miranda sat up and slid off the bed. She grabbed her clothes and started to pull them on roughly. Getting dressed in her aggravated state probably wasn’t a good idea, but she had to move. Anything to get Tori’s pained expression out of her line of vision.

“Well, I guess that answers my questions.”

“What questions?” Miranda snapped. “This was never more than this. You knew that going in.”

Tori raised her eyebrows in surprise before she nodded. “You’re right. I did.”

Why did she feel so shitty? Miranda stood up straight. Even though she was telling Tori to leave, she didn’t want her to go. She didn’t want to watch her walk away again, to wonder if she could call or text. Her heart raced, her mind spinning. She should take it all back. She should stop her own defensiveness and self-destruction.

Tori stood up and picked up her clothes. Miranda stared at her, dumbfounded. All the words tumbled through her mind at the same time, but she couldn’t force a single one of them past her lips. Tori was dressed in seconds. She leaned in and pressed a sad kiss to Miranda’s cheek.

Miranda almost turned to make their lips touch. Maybe that would snap her out of whatever this was. But it didn’t happen. Tori squeezed her hand, whispering, “I’ll see you around, Miranda.”

The words from their last few conversations clenched tightly against her heart, dragging her to the bottom of the pit of despair she thought she’d avoided. But she hadn’t. She hadn’t even managed to come up and breathe fresh air. The world tumbled down around her as Tori left, walking out of the room and probably out of her life. But this was what she wanted, wasn’t it?

No relationship.

No complications.

No soulmates.

Miranda shuddered as Rebel cried, awoken no doubt when Tori moved Harley away from her. She buttoned up her pants and left the guest room, making the long walk down the hallway. By the time she reached Rebel, Tori and Harley were gone, the lights of her car flashing through the window as she backed out of the drive.

Rebel ran to her, clutching to her leg as she sobbed. Miranda picked her up, cradling her and pressing her nose into Rebel’s hair.

“Yeah, baby. I get it. I feel the same way.”

twenty-six

“Hey.” Siena smiled from two tables away and tried to be perky. Tori saw it in her extra-wide smile and the worry in her eyes. But she knew Siena too well, and the same could easily be said the other way. She just hoped Siena wouldn’t get stuck in the details of their previous conversation over the phone. She regretted it more than she regretted just about anything.

Tori watched the sway of Siena’s hips and the ease of how she walked into a room and the eyes that gravitated toward her. She rarely noticed the heads turning in her direction for a second, or even a third look, and never seemed too concerned by the pairs of too-curious eyes roving up and down her body.

Siena leaned in and kissed Tori’s cheek before she slid into the seat at the cafe table, once again proving Tori’s exact point. She hadn’t noticed a single one of her instant admirers.

Tori had chosen the cafe because she didn’t want to break down. She’d had her time to wallow, and she could feel the fizzing energy of excitement bubbling beneath her skin. There may also have been fear and trepidation, but she was sticking with the excitement.

Siena nodded at the coffee that had already been ordered for her. “Thank you.”

“Of course.” Tori smiled, knowing it wasn’t up to her usual level of energy and brightness, but it was getting there. She was getting there. “Thanks for meeting me.”

“Is everything okay? Something to do with Harley?” No wonder Siena hadn’t noticed a single other person in the cafe.

“Oh, no.” Tori reached out her hand and quickly squeezed Siena’s fingers for a beat before pulling back again. The touch felt nice, a little too nice.

Another reason the public place was a very good idea. It had also been why Tori had waited a few days, allowing herself to grieve in a far healthier way then shagging her ex who, with her own recent break up, probably wouldn’t be opposed to the idea.

“Okay, so this is definitely something else.” The square of Siena’s shoulders drooped a little, and she relaxed back in the chair.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t even think that you might have worried it had to do with Harley.” Tori hadn’t been on her toes. She had even lost a potential new client because she hadn’t been focused enough, and the thought made her sick. She prided herself on giving every client her full attention. She hoped she could find a way to make it up to the person.