“Laiken.” Dakota’s face appears in my blurred peripheral, then she slides between us, taking Laiken by the shoulders. “It’s okay. I got you, Red.”
Ivy is there next, a frown on her face as she encompasses Laiken from the other side.
Dakota meets my eyes. “We’ll take her with us.”
All I can do is nod and watch them guide the woman I’ve loved since I was eighteen years old across the parking lot.
Shame and regret light me up, and when I turn to walk back to the building, I have no choice but to stop in my tracks. Cooper and Maddox stand at the entrance, arms crossed and eyes narrowed.
I open my mouth to speak, but before I can, Maddox takes a single step, then everything goes black.
Chapter twenty
Parker
“Here.” Maddox tosses a frozen bag of corn onto my lap.
I jolt, grabbing the item before pressing it to the right side of my face. He got me good.
Cooper sits across his kitchen island from me, questions brewing in his eyes. Maddox straddles the stool at the end of the bar, his gaze hard.
Not nearly as hard as his fist felt when he clocked me in the parking lot. I didn’t cower, though. I deserve it.
“How much did you hear?” I ask as the cold numbs my skin.
“Enough,” Maddox grumbles. “You want to explain to me why my sister was sobbing in the pouring rain about you breaking her heart?”
“Shit, Maddox.” I pitch the corn onto the island. “It’s not—”
“When?” He narrows his eyes.
“Before I went pro.”
“How long?”
“It started the summer she was seventeen,” I admit.
“I knew it,” Cooper mutters. “I knew something was up.”
I glare at him. “She didn’t want anyone to know. Laiken is private. You know how she is. And frankly, it was none of your fucking business.”
“When someone makes my sistercry,it’s my business.” Maddox stands from the stool, the legs scraping against the floor.
“Mads,” Cooper warns.
“No. This asshole hurt my sister. What’d you do? Fuck around on her? Was it with Tori?”
Rage ignites inside of me. I push to my feet. “Fuck you. I never cheated on her. Not once. I loved her.”
“Funny way of showing it.” He shakes his head. “What the hell happened? I’ve never seen her upset like that.”
I lower back down to the stool, swiping a hand over my face. “Look. There’s a lot I need to say and I’ll tell you everything, but she deserves to hear it first.”
There’s silence in the room before Cooper speaks. “You said you loved her.”
“Never stopped, so I guessloveis the correct tense. Life just got…”
“Complicated,” Maddox adds. He palms the back of his neck. “I know a little bit about that.”
