Must Be Fate: (Cody and Clover) (A Jetty Beach Romance Book 3) Read Free Page B

a workaholic.
    I shut down my computer and let out a heavy sigh. Workaholic or no, I know that Jen and I have been over for a long time. I need to deal with this once and for all. My brothers have been nudging me, telling me I need to make a clean break. They’re right. I’ve avoided this for way too long.
    I don’t bother going home to change, instead pulling up at the restaurant still dressed in my cream-colored button-down and blue tie. I find Jen sitting at the bar, her manicured nails tapping against the side of a glass of red wine.
    “Really, Cody?” she says. Her straight, dark hair hangs past her shoulders, and she’s wearing a black sheath dress and heels.
    “Sorry, I got caught up at work,” I say. “I had a little girl with a dislocated elbow.”
    “Of course you did,” she says with a shake of her head. “I didn’t bother getting a table yet, since I knew you’d be late.”
    My brow furrows. Really? Not an ounce of compassion for a little kid? “Look, Jen, we need to talk.”
    “Fine, let’s just get our table and order,” she says. “I didn’t have lunch and I’m starving.”
    The host appears before I can say anything else. “I have a table this way, if you’re ready.”
    I follow Jen to a table. It’s quiet tonight, not many other customers in the little restaurant. We take our seats and the host hands us menus, but I put mine down and wait for the host to walk away. I’m not going to sit here and eat a meal with her. I’m getting this over with, now.
    “Jen, I need to say something,” I say.
    She keeps looking at the menu. “Sure.”
    “I think we should finally call it quits,” I say.
    Her eyes lift to mine, her expression blank. Son of a bitch, she wears a lot of makeup. “What?”
    “We keep doing this,” I say. “We fight, then we make up, then we fight again, and it’s always the same stuff. I’m tired of it.”
    “You are not breaking up with me.” She says it with such disdain, it pisses me off.
    “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m doing. I should have done this a long time ago.” I stand up.
    Her mouth drops open. “Cody, you can’t be serious,” she says.
    “I’m very serious,” I say. Now that I’ve said it, the rightness of it is so obvious. I’m an idiot for letting this drag out for so long. “We’re terrible together, Jen. We make each other miserable. It’s like we keep coming back to it because we’re afraid there isn’t another alternative. But this isn’t working. It never really did. This is it. I’m done.”
    I can feel her eyes boring through my back as I walk away. But fuck it, I don’t want to do this anymore. If we get back together tonight, we’ll only be fighting again in a few days.
    It’s amazing how free I feel as I walk to my car. I didn’t appreciate how much that shitty relationship was weighing me down.
    I get in the car and pick up some Chinese takeout on my way home. My place is about a mile from downtown—not on the beach, but within walking distance. It’s a pretty standard two-story, with three bedrooms upstairs, a nice kitchen, and a gas fireplace in the living room. It has a big backyard, and there are plenty of trees for privacy. I bought a newer home, knowing I wouldn’t have a lot of time to fix things up, and it’s also a lot more space than I need, living here by myself.
    But I bought it with the future in mind. I always assumed I would get married and have a family. I’m frustrated with myself for wasting the last couple of years. I knew early on that Jennifer wasn’t the one. Why did I stay with her so long?
    I go inside, grab a beer, and plop down on the couch with my dinner. I’ll eat out of the takeout boxes—no Jennifer to complain and tell me to use a plate. Man, I’m glad she never moved in. She talked about selling her condo and moving in with me, but I resisted. We fought about that, too. It’s a good thing I stood my ground. Although now my house seems too big and empty. I haven’t done