Everlasting Bonds - COMPLETE

Chapter 39

POV: Colt

As I sat in a small café waiting for Taylor to arrive, I thought back to last night.

The guys were right.

I needed to sort my shit out with Taylor before I was honest with Lark about how I felt about her. I'd known how I felt since she crashed back into our lives, but I had been terrified to confront that feeling.

If I told her I loved her and she didn't love me back, I could handle that because being her friend was better than being nothing to her at all. But if I told her I loved her, she felt the same, and then she was ripped from our lives again I don't think I could handle that.

I barely did the first time.

I had always been protective of her and the guys. Knowing that I couldn't do anything to stop her kidnapping had eaten away at me for almost a decade. Turning me into someone who kept most people at bay.

But I couldn't be a coward anymore. Not when she deserved to have someone choose her and be brave and proud to do it.

The sound of stilettos clicking against the hardwood floor brought me back to the present and I looked up to see Taylor striding toward me. Her dress and heels seemed out of place in this comfortable coffee shop. Especially since I was wearing a sweatshirt and jeans.

I greeted her with a kiss on the cheek and her usual coffee order. "Thanks for meeting me this morning".

"It's not a problem, and besides we haven't gotten coffee together in ages". She sat down on the couch next to me. Our bodies were angled into one another and I was glad that the coffee shop was mostly empty.

"I wanted to talk to you about something actually. This isn't a date".

Her brows scrunched together as she processed what I had said. "Okay... what do you want to talk about then?". She sipped her coffee and gave me an expectant look.

"I would like to stop seeing each other". Her eyes narrowed on me before she let out a forced laugh.

"Funny Colt. What did you actually want to talk about?"

"I'm serious, Taylor. I don't want to be in a relationship with you anymore".

I had seen Taylor angry before. But right now she looked like she could kill me. "Are you fucking kidding me, Colt?", she seethed. "I have been nothing but accommodating to your odd work hours, I've put up with your fucking roommates, I have been perfect. Why are you doing this?".

Hearing her refer to Luka, Aidan, and Greyson as my 'roommates', when she knew I thought of them as my family further proved to me that I was making the right decision.

"I'm doing this because we aren't right for each other. We want different things, and the truth is I was never going to give you what you wanted. My foot has always been halfway out the door and that's not fair to you. I'm trying to do the right thing".