Heat rushes up my neck. “Why the hell would you do that?”
“Because you’re fucking miserable, man.” Cole runs a hand through his hair and leans forward onto the island. “She’smiserable. And apparently everyone involved is too stubborn to do anything butbe miserable.”
I narrow my gaze at him. “I would rather all of you stay the fuck out of this.”
“No.” There's no flexibility in his voice in the slightest.
I stare at him.Cole stares back.
For a second, I remember the man he used to be. The one who would have ducked responsibility with a joke, a drink, a disappearing act. This version of him doesn’t move, doesn’t flinch — just stands there in my kitchen, sober and steady and infuriating as hell.
“She doesn’t want to talk to me,” I say.
“She doesn’t want to beg you to listen,” Maddox says. “Different thing.”
Dana steps in, gentler but no less firm. “You need to talk to her, Gray.”
“I don’t need to do anything.”
“You do,” she says. “Fix things or don’t. Get back together or don’t. But at least give her closure. Give yourself closure.”
I hate the word the second she says it.Closure.Like a door clicking shut, like packing away a chapter of your life and labeling the box neatly so it doesn’t bleed into the next one.
I don’t want closure.I want to stop wanting her.Those are different things.
“There’s nothing to fix,” I say, even though the words feel dead on arrival. “She had a plan. She left. End of story.”
Cole’s mouth flattens. “She didn’t leave. You threw her out.”
My head snaps toward him. “Shut up.”
“No,” he says, voice hardening. “You’re telling yourself a version of the story that lets you be angry instead of ashamed.”
I take a step closer to him. “You have no idea what I am.”
“I do, actually.” Cole’s eyes don’t leave mine. “You’re hurt. You’re pissed. You’re in love with a woman who made a backup plan before she knew you were going to become her life, and you decided that made her a villain because it was easier than admitting you fucked up.”
The room goes silent.Maddox looks at the ceiling like he’s praying for patience.Dana watches me with worry in her eyes.
I can barely breathe through the pressure in my chest. “You’re all taking her side.”
“It’s not about sides,” Maddox says.
I drag both hands through my hair and turn away, pacing once toward the living room and back. “You think I haven’t played it over in my head? I know what happened. She admitted she was going to move out.”
“She also tried to explain why,” Cole says.
“She had weeks to tell me.”
“And you had weeks to tell her at least half the things you were feeling,” Dana says.
I don’t have a response ready for that. I stare at her, trying to find words, but before they can even form in my throat, a small, sniffling sound comes from the stairs.
Every one of us freezes.
I move before anyone can say another damned thing, stepping too fast, rounding the corner of the kitchen.Penelope stands halfway down the stairs in her unicorn socks, plate clutched to her chest, eyes huge and wet.
My heart drops straight through the floor.
