“I don’t know, Mom,” Elena said, fidgeting with her phone as she perched on the bed Eva had been using. “I still think you’re being a little hasty.”

Eva frowned as she turned a circle in the room, checking to make sure she’d tossed all her personal things into her duffel. Eva had returned to the apartment in the middle of the night, then waited up for Elena to come home. They’d talked on the couch for hours, and Eva had explained to her daughter that she needed to go back to San Diego. Not only because she had a business to run, but because Tyree needed space.

“I’m not saying it’s over.” Please, don’t let it be over. “But I am saying he has some things to work out.”

“Then work them out with him. I mean, come on, Mom. This is my dad.”

Eva sighed, and stopped packing, her attention focused entirely on her daughter. “I know. And I know that you’d thought you were getting the fairy tale. Honestly, I thought I was, too. But that’s not the way the story’s turning out. Your father loved his wife. Really loved her. And that’s wonderful, but it’s also confusing for him. And it only makes it harder for him when I’m here.”

“Sounds like a cop-out to me.”

Eva shook her head. “No. No, it’s not like that. I don’t want to leave. I love him. I love him more than I did before you were born, and there’s not much I wouldn’t give to stay here with him.”

“Then stay.” Elena wasn’t crying, but her voice sounded thick with coming tears.

“I said there wasn’t much. But I won’t give myself. I won’t settle. I did that before, and I’m not going to do it again.”

Elena licked her lips. “But it’s Daddy.”

“Oh, baby,” Eva said, as she lifted the duffel onto her shoulder. “Whatever Tyree Johnson is to me, I swear he will always be your daddy.”

A tear trickled from her daughter’s eye, and Eva forced herself to stay strong. She leaned over and kissed her forehead. “I’m going now,” she said, then hurried into the living room and toward the front door, intending to go down to the street and wait for her ride share.

Instead, she opened the door and found Tyree.

“You’re leaving?”

Eva turned, shooting a frustrated glance toward the bedroom. And toward the daughter inside who’d been fiddling—apparently texting—on her phone.

“We both know it’s best, Tyree. And it doesn’t have to be goodbye. We can talk later. But you need space.”

He stepped into the apartment, forcing her to either hold her ground or take a step back. She stepped back. It was just too damn hard to think when he was that near.

“Don’t tell me what I need. Especially when what I need is you.”

“Do you?”

“Eva…” His voice sounded ripped. Like by just asking the question she’d broken his heart.

She drew in a breath, determined to remain firm. “Fine, maybe you don’t need space, but I do. I need time. I think we both do.”

He took her hand, and she felt it swallowed up in the warmth of his strong grip. “Please, Eva. I don’t want to lose you.”

“I don’t want to lose you either,” she said, then saw his shoulders sag with relief. “But I’m not going to settle anymore, either.” She drew in a breath for courage. “I have a career I love back in California, and I want a man who loves me. Who isn’t afraid to love me completely.”

She touched her fingertips to his face. “I don’t know if that’s you or not, Tiger. I'd like to believe it is. But you won’t let yourself love me. Not fully. Because you think it’s dishonoring Teiko. You’re a big man, Ty, with a big heart. Did you ever think there’s room in there for the both of us?”

“Eva, please.”

But she just shook her head. “No. I’m sorry. I have to go home. Tell Jenna I’ll call her. I can come out and do all the calendar shots right after Mr. December is chosen. I’ll make it work. And Elena can do the publicity shots and I’ll clean them up in Photoshop for her.”

He rubbed his eyebrow, his expression pained. “Don’t go. Can’t we—”

“There’s no we,” she said gently. “There can’t be a we until you figure some things out.”

She kissed him gently on the cheek. “I love you,” she said. “For that matter, I never stopped loving you. And I never will. But right now, I have to go.”