I exhaled through my nose. “He did.” The words tasted like ash.
Christian’s expression shifted. His voice dropped, lower and quieter. “Was it about Callie?”
The room went still. Even the hum of the heater seemed to fade. I could feel every set of eyes on me, the weight of their silence pressing in.
“Yeah.” I didn’t bother to hide the gravel in my voice. “He crossed a line.”
Javier let out a low whistle, then shrugged. “He’s got some balls thinking he can talk about her like that. Still a jackass, I see.”
Christian shifted forward slightly, his elbows resting on the table, gaze locked on mine. “You know… I didn’t ease into falling for Claire. It wasn’t slow. It hit me like a freight train. And there were nights I felt like I was still crawling out of the dark—ghosts from my time in the SAS clawing their way back into my head. But she stayed. Shesawme. Didn’t flinch.”
He spoke like he was remembering something sacred. Not just her—but himself, the version he became because she stayed.
“It’s easy to believe we don’t deserve love,” he said. “Easy to think what we’ve done, what we’ve carried, makes us unworthy. But we’re wrong. We deserve someone who sees more than just the wreckage.”
Javier offered a teasing grin, but I saw the shift behind it—respect, plain and honest.
I leaned back in my chair, their voices circling me like smoke from an old fire. Familiar, warm. But if I sat in it too long, it’d choke me. The truth settled heavy in my chest: I didn’t know if I deserved Callie. Or if I even knew how to hold on to someone like her without breaking something in the process.
Christian’s words didn’t just land—theylodged. And for the first time all night, I let them.
“She’s my brother’s ex,” I said, the words rough in my throat. Saying it out loud made the whole thing feel even messier—like I was standing dead center in a minefield, one wrong step away from detonating everything.
“Fuck your brother,” Javier snapped, no hesitation. His tone cut sharper than steel. “With all due respect, family isn’t just blood. It’s scars. It’s showing up. It’s who you choose. And Leo?” He shook his head. “He’s loyal to one person—himself. What he did to Callie…” He trailed off, but the anger in his voice lingered, scorching the space between us.
I shifted in my seat, the weight of their eyes settling heavy on my shoulders. I’d never seen that side of Javier before—fierce, protective, like someone who had drawn a line and dared the world to cross it. And maybe he had. For her. For us.
“You know what happened?” I asked, meeting his gaze.
He nodded, jaw tight. “The whole town does.”
“I don’t,” I admitted, quieter this time.
Luke leaned forward, resting his arms on the table. “You went back home,” he said simply. And it landed with more weight than I expected—like that choice alone had made me blind to everything that unfolded here.
I waited for more, but no one filled the silence. It sat thick in the air between us—too many memories that didn’t belong to me. Too many wounds that hadn’t closed.
“It’s not our story to tell,” Noah said softly. There was no judgment in his voice, just quiet finality.
“Right.” I started to speak again, but Christian stood before I could get another word out.
“And I think that wraps everything up,” he said lightly, but there was intent in his tone. The kind that came from someone used to giving orders and knowing when the conversation had gone far enough. “Come on, boys. Let’s get out of here before the snow traps us in.”
The tension broke with laughter and movement as they gathered their things, the storm between us clearing just enough to feel the warmth again. I watched them joke as they grabbed coats and cups, but my thoughts stayed rooted elsewhere—on the bruise throbbing across my knuckles.
“Hey,” I said as they moved toward the door. “I can stay. Clean up.”
Luke tossed a balled-up napkin at me. “You started it. You finish it.”
I caught it with a half-smile. Despite the storm still spinning inside me, their teasing landed like a reminder that I wasn’t alone—not entirely.
As the bell over the door jingled and cold air rushed in behind them, I started clearing the plates. My hands moved, but my mind stayed tangled in Callie’s voice, Leo’s taunts, the weight of everything left unsaid.
The truth was, I hadn’t just been avoiding Leo all these years—I’d been avoidingher. Avoiding what it would mean to want something my brother had broken. But maybe it was time to stop living in the shadows of his wreckage.
Because family wasn’t defined by blood. It was defined by choice. And Callie? She deserved someone who wouldchooseher—every time. Not because of guilt, not because of the past, but because she was worth standing beside when everything turned messy.
And I was done watching from a distance.
