The chuckle he fills the garage with is so apathetic it makes me want to vomit. “You do, Jor. Because I’d fuck this up. I’m the man-whore of Santa Rosé, remember? Give it a couple months and I’ll end up cheating on you, right? Cause that’s the kind of thing I do.”
Rage unlike I’ve ever felt cascades through me, knocking me backwards a few steps. My head shakes vehemently. I can’t believe this. I can’t believe how easy it is for him to just give up.
“No, Liam,” I seethe with a curl of my lips. “To be a cheater you need to have a relationship, and you don’t do those, remember? You aren’t a cheater. You’re a fucking coward.”
Silence stretches between us. He works his jaw back and forth, his eyes firmly planted on the ground, hands shoved in his pockets. There’s a very controlled rise and fall of his chest as I stare at him, waiting for some kind of reaction, but he gives me nothing. I would rather him yell. I would rather him fight. I would rather anything but silence.
“So what?” I finally ask, my hands curling into balls. They feel frozen even though the garage isn’t cold. “That’s it? You’re just giving up?”
It takes him a full inhale and exhale before he shrugs, his eyes lifting. They’re devoid of any emotion now. Dead and cold, chilling me to the bone. “It’s what a coward would do, right?”
The sound of a sob bubbles up from my chest and I’m helpless to stop it. “You’re an asshole.” And then, as a final blow because my heart is breaking apart into a million tiny pieces, and I need him tofeel some semblance of what I feel, I add a parting blow. “Even Paul fought harder for me.”
I get the satisfaction of his entire body jerking backwards like he’s been struck. Then I’m grabbing my purse from one of the benches and fleeing the garage and him. My words did what I intended, but there’s no actual pleasure derived from hurting him, even with how angry I am with him and my brother.
Lifting the latch on the back gate where my car is, I take one second to kneel down and give Tosha a kiss on the top of the head before leaving. She’s followed me out in my rush, and whines loudly. We’ve only had two weeks together, but I’ve absolutely fallen in love with her.
Just like her dad.
The first sob fully breaks free the second my car door is shut. Air is difficult to pull into my lungs, but I take one breath after the other. I need to get the hell out of here and away from Liam, Tosha, and this place. It hurts. It hurts worse than it’s ever hurt before.
I can’t allow myself to feel it yet because it’ll overwhelm me. It’ll suck me in and pull me down, and while I know it’s inevitable, I need to get away from here before I can fall apart.
My damn brother. If Nate hadn’t reacted so poorly, none of this would be happening. How dare he say all those things to Liam. They’re supposed to be best friends. How in the hell can Nate have a best friend that is worthy of the title but not worthy of being with me? It doesn’t make a lick of difference to me how many women Liam has been with, so why should it matter to Nate?
I wipe furiously at my face as I drive in the direction of home. Hah. Home. Home should be a place where you feel welcome, but I sure as hell don’t feel welcome there after Nate’s blow up.
“I can’t stay there,” I realize out loud, fresh tears springing to life. I blink rapidly to get rid of them, letting them cascade downmy cheeks as I sniffle. No part of me wants to be around my brother right now. I don’t need to hear some version of “I told you so” from him.
When I pull up to my spot in the back, I cut the engine and sit there for a moment, wiping my eyes and blowing my nose. Collecting myself enough to get through the next ten minutes because Nate’s truck is here which means he came home after Liam’s. All I need is to pack a bag and then I’m out of here.
A couple minutes later I’m pulling the screen door open and darting up the steps into the kitchen. The silence is deafening, but the tension is palpable. Nate is standing at the kitchen island, and Savanna is across it sitting in one of the breakfast bar chairs.
“Hey,” Savanna greets with a note of hesitation in her voice.
It’s obvious I interrupted them talking about me and Liam. I spare neither of them a glance as I cross through the kitchen to the hall that leads down to the bedrooms. My room is at the very end of the hall, across from theirs. It doesn’t take more than a minute to grab a bag from the floor of my closet, tossing it on the bed before I start pulling clothes from my dresser.
“Jor?”
Savanna stands in my doorway, using that same tone. Treading lightly and handling me like I’m a ticking time bomb. Maybe I am. I’m currently hurling clothes at my bed, and at some point between entering the house, and this moment, tears have started to stream down my cheeks.
“What are you doing?”
“Packing.”
Savanna takes a step inside my room. “I can see that. Why?”
Swiping angrily at the tears on my face, I stop and turn to face her. “Ask your stupid husband.”
“He told me he saw you and Liam,” she hedges, glancingover her shoulder toward the hallway. “Doesn’t sound like it went great.”
“It didn’t,” I confirm, turning back to the task at hand. I grab a pair of scrubs and throw them angrily at the bed. “And it went even worse after he left.”
I don’t hear her move, but she’s suddenly at my side, touching my forearm before I have a chance to throw something else at my bed. “What does that mean?”
“What does it mean?” I whirl in her direction. The sound of my voice sounds shrilly, even to my ears, and I’m certain she feels the same way based on the cringe she gives me. “It means I hope my brother is fucking happy,” I yell loud enough that I hope Nate overhears me. “Liam broke it off. He ended things.”
“This is exactly why I didn’t want you dating one of my friends,” Nate snarls from the doorway.
