He Chose My Best Friend, Now He Wants Me Back Chapter 14

He Chose My Best Friend, Now He Wants Me Back Chapter 14

A little girl with pigtails pushed the door open, making the wind chime ring.

“Mara!” she ran in. “My mom said you have a book for me!”

“Of course.” I smiled, patting her head as I pulled a picture book from under the counter. “Your copy of *Goodnight Moon*.”

Ben sat in the corner, watching me the whole time.

He watched the focused look on my face as I talked to the little girl. He watched the quiet satisfaction as I organized the shelves. He watched the soft, easy smile I gave the orange cat—a smile he hadn’t seen in years. Or maybe, in the last few years we were together, I had simply stopped smiling like that.

The book in his hands stayed open to the same page. He was just trying to steal a few more minutes, to spy on the life I had built after leaving him.

After I closed up for the night, he was still there, waiting by the door like a stone sentinel.

I turned off the lights and moved to lock the door.

“Mara, I’m sorry.” His voice cut through the quiet street, thick with a tremor he couldn’t hide.

I didn’t turn around.

“I know sorry is useless,” he said, taking a step closer. “I just… I need you to know that I regret it. Not just because you left. I regret it because I finally understand that I was wrong from the very beginning.”

I turned, the key cold in my hand, and looked at the man I had once intended to spend my life with.

“Ben, let me ask you something.”

“If that day at the clerk’s office, the system hadn’t flagged my name… if I had gotten that marriage license…”

I paused, watching the color drain from his face.

“Would you have told me the truth? Or would you have let me walk down the aisle?”

He froze. His lips moved, but no sound came out.

I smiled, a smile with no warmth. “You don’t have to answer. I already know.”