Page 210 of My Fake Dating with the Grumpiest Highlander
“I thought she’d stay,” I whisper. “This is her home.”
“You thought you were staying too,” Nate replies quietly. “And yet you were getting ready to leave, weren’t you?”
I can’t lie.
“I thought about it.”
“Of course you did. Running away is what you do best.”
Anger surges instantly.
“I’m not running. I’m?—”
“You are,” he cuts in sharply. “You ran from Edinburgh. And now you’re running from your feelings. Running from Mary. But you can’t spend your entire life running, Finn.”
“I don’t know how to do anything else!”
Nate watches me for a long moment.
“You know why I almost lost Lily?”
I shake my head.
“Because I was scared. Scared I wasn’t good enough. Scared she’d realize I was just some failed contractor bouncing between odd jobs.”
He pauses.
“So I pushed her away. Again and again. Until she decided to leave for London.”
“But you didn’t let her go.”
“No. Because Hamish showed me what I refused to see.”
Despite everything, I almost smile.
“A sheep gave you life advice?”
“He’s smarter than he looks.”
Silence settles again.
“You hide behind your trauma,” Nate says quietly. “You use that little girl as an excuse not to live. Because living means taking risks.”
“That’s not?—”
“Yes, it is. That little girl died. It’s awful. But Mary is alive.”
His voice hardens.
“And if you don’t do something, you’re going to lose the only real chance at happiness you’ve had in years.”
Something inside me cracks.
“I don’t know how,” I whisper.
“How to do what?”
“Be the man she deserves. Be happy. Stop hating myself.”
