I squeeze my eyes shut. “I-I hope so. She just… she can’t do anything about it right now. I can see it in her eyes, in the way she looks at me, as if she’s begging me to understand.”
Carter’s quiet for a long moment before he speaks softly. “That’s why you broke the mirror?”
“Yeah.”
He nods once, rubbing the back of his neck. “You love her, and you can’t have her. I get that. But Jesus, Reed, you can’t let it eat you alive like this.”
I laugh. “Too late for that.”
Maverick runs a hand through his hair. “Cat andAmelia begged to come. You know that, right? They were worried sick. Cat was screaming on the phone when I called Carter.”
Carter snorts softly. “She was ready to drive here herself.”
That makes me smile a little, broken. “Tell her I’m fine.”
“You’re not,” Carter says softly. “You don’t have to be. You don’t have to be the one who fixes everything.”
I stare down at my hands, the towel darkened where the blood’s seeped through. “I shouldn’t have done this to her. To any of us. But I can’t regret it. I can’t regret her.”
Maverick nods slowly. “You always were the one who loved hardest.”
“Yeah, well,” I mutter, voice cracking, “look where that got me.”
Carter steps forward and rests a hand on my shoulder. “It got you here. Alive. Still fighting. Don’t you forget that.”
The weight of his hand steadies me.
I can almost breathe again, almost.
Maverick’s voice cuts through the silence, softer now. “You’re not a bad man for loving someone who made you feel alive. Don’t twist it into something ugly just because it’s complicated.”
I blink hard, fighting the burn in my eyes. “I just don’t know how to stop.”
“You don’t,” Carter says simply. “You learn to carry it. And when she’s ready, you’ll be the one waiting, because that’s who you are.”
I nod, barely holding it together. “I can’t watch her suffer anymore.”
Carter’s hand tightens on my shoulder. “Then we’ll help her. We’ll figure something out. But you don’t do this alone. Not anymore.”
Maverick stands, pulling me up with him, his grip firm and brotherly. “You’re ours, Reed. No more hiding. If you fall, we catch you. That’s how this works.”
I let out a broken laugh, tears spilling before I can stop them. “You two are exhausting.”
Carter gives a faint grin. “Yeah, well, so are you.”
I huff out a laugh. “Please don’t tell the girls.”
Maverick grins, patting my shoulder. “Don’t worry, bro.”
For the first time in weeks, I feel the weight of everything I’ve been carrying beginning to lift, just a little.
The ache’s still there, but it’s softer now.
Because I’m not alone in it anymore.
I’ve been outsidesince sunrise with my sleeves rolled up to my elbows, my boots caked with soil.
The patch behind the wooden beams has half-tilled, uneven rows lined with empty seed packets.
