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“Don’t.” I pull my arm away, banging my elbow against the wall. Which really freaking hurts, but not as badly as the vise grip squeezing my chest. “You don’t get to come out here and act like a hero, like you give a shit. Not after all this time.”
I lock eyes with him, a quick flash of pain dancing across his face before he goes neutral.
He swallows hard, Adam’s apple bobbing.
The silence is filled with so many things unspoken between us. Things I fervently wish to leave buried. Nothing good’s going to come from unpacking all this baggage.
“I’m no hero, Juliet. Never claimed to be.”
Truer words have never been spoken. He’s definitely not a hero.
He used to be. To you, at least.
I don’t know what to say back, so I smash my lips together and stay quiet. The silence stretches between us, long as the years that have passed, and I’m so fucking confused. My head’s telling me to run, but my body’s frozen in place. I’m all twisted up inside, and I hate it.
I want him to say he’s sorry. To say he made a mistake when he pushed me away. That he wishes he held me in his arms as I cried myself to sleep night after night all those years ago.
That he wanted to be together—be a family—just as much as I did.
That he fucked up and he’ll do anything to earn my forgiveness.
But I don’t say anything at all.
I keep all my emotions, all my words, buried.
Another minute passes, and then King walks away.
Like he always does.
I watch as he retreats, getting smaller and smaller until he fades from sight.
Gone.
I’m alone.
A sharp breeze blows in from the ocean, and I shudder, goose bumps rising on my skin.
This is hard.
I thought I was over it, over him.
Turns out I’m not. I only managed to tape the pieces of my heart together. And every time I see him, the tape loosens—a piece here, another piece there—threatening to come completely undone.
I don’t know if I can live like this.
It hurt living without him, but being here—orbiting around each other like this—hurts more.
7
KING
Back inside, I make an excuse to my brothers about a horse emergency at the ranch and grab my taco order to go. After my exchange with Juliet, there’s no way in hell I can sit here and behave like it’s another normal boys’ night.
I’m not that good of an actor.
And I’m certainly no fucking hero.
Never claimed to be. Never wanted to be.
