Against a Wall (Stonecut County, #2)

by Cate C. Wells

“My choices have nothing to do with you.” I scrub at a stubborn creamer stain. “Glen, you don’t have to be with someone to be happy. I mean, I feel partially responsible here. You clung to me like a life raft, and I did honestly love you, so I let you. But maybe I was doing you a disservice. You gotta learn to be happy with yourself before you can be happy with someone else.” He stares at me soulfully, and I know he one hundred percent means what he says. I want to hurl. Or hurl something at him. “Is that what you’re doing with Samantha? Learning to be happy with yourself?” Before it’s all the way out of my mouth, I know I stepped in it. That’s not what I wanted to say, anyway. He exhales, oozing smug sympathy. “I knew this was about Samantha. Listen, Glen—what Samantha and I have doesn’t take away from what we had. You don’t need to prove anything by messing around with Cash Wall. You gotta find your worth inside yourself, you know?” He sounds so goddamn condescending. And what a shitty mirror to hold up to someone. Look at yourself, you stage-five clinger. No one could possibly love you or want you, so my best advice to you is fix yourself. And also, I would like credit for loving you when you so clearly suck as evidenced by your low-ass self-esteem—which is really an accurate assessment of your sad, clingy, unactualized self. I’m the good guy. You’re the mess. And I’m only trying to help. I want to say all that, but I’d never get the words in the right order, and I also...