I stepped out.
Rain misted over my face the second I stood, cold enough to make me shiver. Bliss reached for me, then stopped with her hands hovering inches from my arms like she had no idea whether she was still allowed.
That hurt worse than being grabbed.
I took the decision away from both of us and stepped into her.
She made a broken sound and wrapped herself around me so tightly I lost the little air I had left. Charm came in from the other side, one arm around my back and the other hand firm at the nape of my neck, holding me together like she had decided collapse was permitted only under supervision.
“I’m sorry,” I said into Bliss’s hoodie.
Bliss shook against me. “No, don’t start there.”
“I was horrible.”
“So were we.”
“I said things I knew would hurt you.”
Charm’s fingers tightened at my neck. “We deserved some of them.”
“No.” I pulled back enough to look at her. Rain had gathered on her lashes, and her mouth was pressed flat like shewas holding in every apology so she wouldn’t drown me with them. “You didn’t deserve Ryan being thrown in your face like that.”
Charm’s expression flickered, pain, embarrassment, and love all moving through the same tiny crack. “Maybe I deserved the reminder that I was protecting the room more than I was protecting you.”
Bliss nodded, wiping beneath one eye with the cuff of Cade’s hoodie. “We were wrong.”
I shook my head. “You were trying to stop me from lighting myself on fire.”
“We were looking at the wrong burn.” Bliss’s voice broke, but she kept going, stubborn as ever. “We knew your damage. We knew exactly what Darian did to your life, and we still got so scared you were going to hate yourself for reacting that we stopped looking at what Easton had been doing to you too.”
Charm looked toward the apartment building, her jaw tight. “We saw you swinging, and we forgot you’d been bleeding for months before you ever raised your hand.”
My throat closed.
Bliss grabbed both my hands and held them between us. “I hate that we made you feel alone in that room. I hate that you looked around for us and didn’t find us standing where we should’ve been.”
“I told you to leave me alone.”
“You were hurt,” she said. “And I listened, which was mature and respectful and the worst fucking thing I’ve ever done.”
Charm let out a wet little laugh. “We were giving you space like two emotionally evolved women.”
Bliss grimaced. “It was disgusting.”
“I hated it,” Charm said.
“I cried into Cade’s chest so hard he asked if he needed to call you and beg on my behalf.”
“Ryan offered to drive me over and then immediately looked terrified that I might accept,” Charm added.
I blinked through the ache. “Ryan offered?”
“He said, and I quote, ‘This is women’s business, and I value my life, but I can operate a vehicle.’”
Bliss sniffed. “That was actually sweet for Ryan.”
Charm looked personally offended. “It was. I hated that too.”
