You couldn’t even do a wedding right.
His voice. I can hear it as clearly as if he’s standing next to me. He’d arrange the facts until I was the only variable that didn’t make sense.
You embarrassed us, Piper. Again.
My throat closes. I know that conversation. I’ve lived it a dozen times in different rooms.
How do you walk back into a life where you’re always the problem?
My breathing is gone. It’s just shallow, useless hitches. I don’t even realize I’m scratching at my forearm until my nails leave red tracks against the skin. I can’t stand the dress. I can’t stand being in this skin.
“Stop.” Griffin’s hands are on my arms. “Piper. Stop.”
I look down at the red lines on my skin. The sight of them brings me back to the buzzing light, the pine cleaner, the reality of the room. Griffin isn’t gripping me hard, but he isn’t letting go, either.
“Hey.” His voice is a low rumble. “You’re okay.”
My vision blurs as I look up at him. “I can’t go back.”
It’s the first true thing I’ve said in years.
I can’t go back.
He looks at me for a long moment. “Then we don’t go back.”
I blink. “We?”
“Technically,” he says, “I’m on vacation.”
Guilt hits me like a physical blow. “Oh, God. I’m ruining your vacation. You had plans.”
“I didn’t have plans. That was the point. No plans.”
“You had to have something—”
“I was going to look at my ceiling for a few days and maybe find a beach. Nothing interesting was going to happen. This is interesting. Don’t apologize again.”
I close my mouth. He’s looking at me with that calmness I don’t think he learned. I think he was born with it.
I slap his arm because it’s the only way I know to process the emotion.
“That’s not comforting,” I tell him.
The corner of his mouth twitches. He looks at my face, at the small, helpless curve of my lips.
“That’s better,” he says.
I exhale. “My family.”
“I talked to Noah before I came in here. Told him I had you.”
The knot in my chest loosens. “They aren’t… they aren’t mad, are they?”
“I don’t think they care, Pipes. As long as you’re okay.”
I look at the ceiling.
“Do you want to keep driving?” he asks.
