Clyde only blinked in my direction. “Really? You’re confident that you know?”
“How else do I take that?”
“Have you guys talked about what would happen if either of you had feelings for each other?”
“No.”
“And what was the last thing you said about relationships?”
“That ... I didn’t do them.” I said it slowly, teeth clenching as Clyde led me right to the point.
“Oh, interesting. So you’re either assuming or you can somehow magically tell the future. Do you also happen to know this week’s lottery numbers?”
“Well, what else am I supposed to do? Get hurt again? No. I refuse to feel ... all of this all over again.”
“Kid.” Clyde’s voice was low. “You’re already feeling it now.”
I gritted my teeth. If I thought about Grace, then the burning pain came right back. Clyde was fucking right and I wasn’t thrilled about it.
“Can you at least kiss the brick before you throw it at me?”
He shook his head. “You need some tough love right now. And that means hearing it exactly like it is.”
“I liked what we had before until emotions messed it up.”
“Did emotions mess it up, or were they there the whole time?”
I thought back and then sighed. “The second one,” I muttered.
“Right,” he said. “You had some good ones and you now have some bad ones. But I promise you, hiding things and not dealing with feelings is why most of my girlfriends left me.”
“I thought it was because you had an unhealthy obsession with trains.”
He narrowed his eyes and pointed at me. “Don’t change the subject. We’re talking aboutyoutelling Grace how you feel.”
“What happens when she says she doesn’t want this?”
“When or if?”
“When.”
“You’re assuming again. You have no idea what she feels.”
“I have a hint. She fucking set me up with someone else.”
“You have no idea why she did that. Maybe she wasn’t sure what you wanted. Maybe she made a mistake. This is where you talk to her.”
“Still . . .”
“What? Are you scared?”
“Maybe I am. Maybe I want to be a little afraid for a bit. The idea of walking in and laying it all out on the line again is terrifying.”
“That it is. And I’m not gonna sit here and say that you can’t be scared. I’m also not gonna sit here and say that you can’t take time to figure out exactly what you wanna say. But you have to do it, because more things are gonna pop up like this, and eventually, you’re gonna have a kid together.”
“I know. I just don’t want to get my heart broken again.”
“I haven’t met the girl, so you’ll have to tell me. Is she like the one who broke your heart in high school?”