Yours: A Forever After Novella Read Online Free Page A

shit to me and get away with it, but not now. Not anymore, Lyric. For all intents and purposes, we’re separated, which means you don’t get to make those kinds of decision for me.”
     
    Wrapping her fingers around my fist, Harleigh pries it from her hair ad extricates herself from my grasp, leaving me cold and feeling more bereft than I did the last time she walked away from me.
     
    “I have my own life now, Lyric. An apartment, friends, and a job I love. Things I didn’t have in Furnace. Things I don’t want to let go of now,” she murmurs quietly.
     
    Her admission hits me like a ton of bricks, knocking the wind out of me and leaving me reeling. Is that how she really feels; that she didn’t or couldn’t have that with me? Thinking back to the life we began together and I thought we both desperately wanted, I can see how Harleigh would believe what she’s saying to be true.
     
    How I was brought up, the way my parents were together and with us kids, no doubt shaped who I am today and how I see relationships. I always figured as the man it was my job to be the provider, that the most important thing I would ever do is make sure my wife and children (when we eventually had them) were well taken care of and protected. However, what I didn’t factor in was that my smart, independent, firecracker of a wife would want to share in that role with me.
     
    My mom stayed at home for the vast majority of my brother and two sister’s childhood. Right up until, Piper, my youngest sister went away to college four and a half years ago, mom was there for every football game, dance recital, skinned knee, and after school pickup.
     
    Dad did his best to be there as often as he could, but running the most sought after tattoo shop in Colorado made it difficult for him to take time off. Especially since there are four of us. That’s not to say he didn’t do it, though, because he did.
     
    I can remember dad cheering me on as I threw the winning touchdown pass as a starting quarterback in my junior year, and again the year after as a senior. Dad was front and center for all of Skye’s dance recitals, and Luca’s gigs when he started playing at Hounds on Thursday and Friday nights.
     
    Dad was there every morning to remind Piper to take her medication and again at night before she went to bed. To this day if we’re at home, he still comes to check in on us before he goes to bed, even though, Piper is the youngest of us at nearly twenty-three.
     
    That said, it was still mom who had our house running like a well-oiled machine, regardless of us all pushing and pulling her time and attention in different directions. Which is a big part of the reason why I never recognized how unhappy Harleigh was with the roles we’d both taken on in our relationship.
     
    Scrubbing my hand over my face, I sigh.
    “Harleigh? Babe, look at me please.”
     
    When I’ve got her attention and her big green eyes lock on mine, I can finally breathe again. Being so disconnected from her is fucking killing me. Literally tearing me apart from the inside out. I’d give just about anything to close the distance between us and erase her fears and concerns, but I can’t.
     
    For starters, I don’t know how to fix what’s broken with us until Harleigh spells it out for me in black and white. My assumptions have gotten me into trouble with her before, so that’s the last thing I need to be doing now; assuming anything. No more fucking guessing. No more beating around the bush. No more fucking games. All I want is the truth from her, no matter how hard it is to hear.
     
    “You know you can tell me anything, don’t you, baby? Whatever it is nothing could ever make me stop loving you. If it’s me, something I’ve done or fucked up, you’ve got to let me know, though. As much as I’d like to say I can read your mind like I used to be able to, I can’t.” Seeing the wariness in her eyes, I add, “This conversation has been a long time