“I freaked out when I saw Ellie,” I admit, changing the subject. “I could lose my job. I went against hospital policy.”
She stares at me, unbothered, “How do you feel about that?”
“I don’t know.”
I remember our conversation a while back when we talked for hours about what we each wanted out of life. How I had fallen into this routine, where I wasn’t sure if I’d made the right decisions.
“Whatever happens,” she assures, “You’ll be alright.”
“Everyone would be disappointed. Would you?”
Her face twists, “If you lost your job?”
I nod, so caught up in the conversation I barely notice we are in the parking lot.
“I could never be disappointed in you. You’re too good.”
I shake my head, cutting the ignition, “What if I’m tired of always being the good guy?”
She stares at me for a moment before I hear the click of the door opening, “You’ll always be the good guy, at least to me.”
We walk toward the main doors of the police station, but Karly stalls at the metal detectors, “Eric, wait!”
I stall, and her voice turns into a hurried blur of worry, “I can’t go in there.”
“What?” I question, trying to grab her hand, which she slips into her pocket. “What do you mean?”
“I can’t be this person for you. I want to be, but I can’t.”
I sigh, but as I step closer, she takes one away. “Jolene, you can’t just pretend like nothing ever happened.”
She throws her hands up, talking with them, “What other choice do we have? No matter what I do, someone is going to get hurt.”
“And I’m assuming that person is going to be me, right?”
“You know it’s not that easy. There isn’t a right thing to do here.”
I feel her slipping away, “The right thing is what you want, Jolene.”
She steps closer to me onto her tiptoes, kissing me gently on my cheek. A kiss that feels a whole lot like goodbye.
“I have to go,” she whispers.
“Why does this feel like goodbye?”
“It’s not goodbye,” she assures, “It’s more like— I don’t know how to fall in love.”
I stand frozen as she walks away, watching her disappear around the corner of the building. A nearly irresistible urge to follow her lingers in the forefront of my mind, but in the back of it, there’s Lainey.
Right now, the only thing to do is go inside and bail my niece out of jail.
CHAPTER 25
KARLY
I left Eric at the police station, and I felt awful about it. He deserved someone that could be there for him, someone to comfort him. That person just couldn’t be me, not if I was going to keep my best friend.
So I quickly decide to give him up. I never dreamed of a guy coming between Hanna and me, and I couldn’t let it happen now.