The Beach Wedding (Married in Malibu Book 1) by Bella Andre, Lucy Kevin Read Free Book Online Page A

out to find out whether his faint buzz of stubble felt as delicious against her fingertips as it always had? Without kissing him the way she was simply dying to?
    Still, she had to at least try to head him off at the pass. “If we missed something with the lighting arrangements or the wedding party, maybe you could email it to me? I know I’ve already taken up time that you should be using for writing, so—”
    “Why did you leave me, Liz? And why didn’t you ever come back?”

Chapter Five
    L iz knew there could be no more hiding from their past, no more pretending that this meeting had been purely business with no hint of personal feelings to intrude on it.
    And the truth was that even if she had ended up deciding to hand things over to Rose and take herself out of the wedding entirely from here on—which she definitely wasn’t going to do—Liz still couldn’t escape the fact that she needed to finally give Jason an answer.
    No matter how painful it was.
    Forcing herself to look him in the eye, she said, “I left because I was holding you back.”
    “Holding me back?” He looked hugely confused, as if that was the last thing he’d expected her to say. “How could you possibly have held me back?”
    “You have more talent than anyone I’ve ever met. You were right on the verge of breaking through as a novelist when we first started dating. But then, when we got so completely wrapped up in each other, you stopped going to writing conferences. Stopped trying to meet with agents and editors from publishing houses.”
    It had been so obvious that he would be a success. Once Liz had read his first manuscript, she’d known Jason had the potential to achieve everything he had ever wanted. And that there was nothing in life that could stop him.
    Except her. Because while Jason should have been rocketing toward success, Liz was an anchor around his neck, dragging him back down. A waitress with a rough childhood from a small town who had moved to LA with big dreams? Everyone had heard that story so many times it had become a cliché. More than that, it had become a joke. There had been times when she’d come back from the diner with her feet hurting after a long day waiting tables, when even Liz had wondered whether she would ever have what it took to realize her own dreams.
    “Wait a second,” he said slowly, clearly working to wrap his head around what she was saying. “You left because you thought you were getting in the way of my career?”
    “Remember that writers’ conference in Montana? You’d always wanted to see Big Sky Country, but even more than that, you needed to see it since it was the setting for your novel. You suggested making a road trip out of it, said that we could have a grand adventure, see wide-open spaces, and make—” Her breath caught in her throat. “Make love beneath the stars.”
    She could see him disappearing into the memory with her as he said, “You were afraid you’d lose your job waiting tables if you asked for time off.”
    She’d been afraid of so much back then—especially of how powerful her love for Jason was...and how powerful his was for her in return. “When I said I couldn’t go, you said you wouldn’t go, either. That you were happy staying right there with me, doing proofreading for the local newspaper, just as long as we were together.” The old frustration bubbled up as she said, “But I knew you would never be content living in some little garden cottage forever. You were meant to be a big, famous writer, not to toil away in obscurity for a weekly paper with tiny circulation. You had so many dreams, such a sense of adventure. I didn’t want to stifle that.” She swallowed hard. “But you refused to leave me, even for one night. No matter what opportunities came your way, you always rejected them to stay home with me instead.”
    “I loved you, Liz. Of course I didn’t want to leave you.”
    “I loved you, too. You know I did. But—” She’d