The Boy Next Door: A Standalone Small Town Romance (Soulmates Series Book 3) by Hazel Kelly Page B

later?”
    He cocked his head. “It would be better if you loved me back.”
    “I do love you.”
    He fixed his eyes on me. “Just not the way I love you.”
    I pursed my lips.
    “I can’t believe this is happening.”
    I desperately wanted to open a window, but it didn’t seem like
the moment to leave his side.
    “Why would you move in if you didn’t want a future with me?” he
asked.
    “I thought I did.”
    He narrowed his eyes. “Until you found the ring?”
    I nodded.
    “Was it the princess cut? Would you prefer a marquise-?”
    “It’s not the ring, Henry. And it’s not you. It’s me. Really.”
    It’s always me.
     

 
    Chapter 12: Connor
     
     
     
     
    I couldn’t believe she did her fake laugh for that guy. I’d
totally forgotten she did that, and now it was haunting me.
    And I know I didn’t imagine it. It happened too many times. So
what the fuck was she doing with him?
    Sure, he seemed alright, but she was a free spirit, and he was
obviously a stick in the mud compared to her.
    Maybe she’d changed. Maybe she wasn’t the Laney I used to love.
Maybe I’d dodged a bullet.
    And yet, despite the weirdness of her behavior since she
arrived, deep down I was still convinced I knew her better than anyone.
    “Same again,” Timo asked?
    “Sure,” I said, checking my watch.
    “Dave meeting you?” he asked, filling a fresh glass.
    “He’s supposed to be.” I drained the last of my beer and slid it
to his side of the bar.
    “Must be on Dave time.”
    I nodded. “As usual.”
    Timo set a pint of Daisy Cutter on my cheap coaster and went to
attend to some local fireman across the room who were downing pitchers faster
than they were breaking darts.
    I looked at the door and then back at my drink. It wasn’t just
the fake laugh that was bothering me. It was the fact that Henry was obviously
into her, and she’d clearly been lying to him as she saw fit.
    The whole display made me feel kind of sick. Not because his
well-being was any of my concern- the guy looked reasonably capable of looking
after himself- but because I couldn’t say for certain that I hadn’t been just
as much of a schmuck.
    For all I knew, I was that guy.
    After all, there was no question I was blinded by love back then,
but what if everyone around me could tell she didn’t care about me as much as I
cared about her. Was that even possible?
    I clenched my jaw.
    If it had all been a show, she’d duped the shit out of my
parents, too. And my friends. Right? It wasn’t just me. It couldn’t have been.
The love I felt for her was still the most real thing I’d ever felt.
    And if it wasn’t real, didn’t that make me some kind of crazy
person?
    “Sorry I’m late,” Dave said, sliding onto the barstool next to
me.
    “It’s fine,” I said. “But you’ve got some catching up to do.”
    “What’ll it be, Dave?” Timo called from the far end of the bar.
    “Whatever Connor’s drinking and some chili cheese fries.”
    Timo nodded and went to the small window that opened into the
kitchen.
    “Chili cheese fries?” I asked.
    He nodded. “It’s meatloaf night.”
    I furrowed my brow. “So you’re deliberately spoiling your
dinner?”
    “It’s not real meatloaf,” he said. “Amber’s gotten all into this
turkey tasting soya bullshit.”
    “I don’t know what that means.”
    “It means you could dribble her meatloaf like a basketball.”
    “Do the kids like it?” I asked.
    “Only cause they don’t know any better,” he said. “And because
they’ll eat anything that tastes like ketchup.”
    I swallowed a sip of my beer. “Does she always make healthy
stuff?”
    “She didn’t used to,” he said. “She used to delight the whole
family with chicken nuggets and fish sticks and all the other things that taste
like happy childhoods.”
    “So what changed?”
    “I don’t know. Some queen bitch told her about the healing
properties of quinoa and kale and now everything has gone to shit-