Page 116 of Falling Back to You

“It happens sometimes. You wear off on me.” I paused. Now that he wouldn’t bite my head off about Noelle, maybe I could get something off my chest. “I wanted to make her proud of me.”

“I know the feeling.”

I snorted. “Right. You, Mr. Hero Complex?”

The crackling flames filled the silence between us. Oh, maybe he was serious.

“Did you ever wonder why I didn’t come home?” he said at last.

Greyson had left to join the Marines the same summer Noelle ran away. Losing two of my favourite people had shaken my world. “Only every year until you did. You even ditched birthdays, my man. I’m still not over that.”

He huffed softly, knowing I was teasing. Mostly. “Coming home felt like acknowledging my failure. Compared to you guys and your hypersuccessful lives, I’d worked my tail off and still missed the promotion.”

I stared, dumbfounded. “Grey, were you jealous?”

He barked a laugh. “Totally.”

“Now that’s ridiculous.”

“Says you who played in the Olympics at twenty.”

“But I was jealous of you,” I countered, leaning my forearms on my knees. “You were the hero everyone was proud of, and I hit a puck around the ice for entertainment.”

“Liam—”

“I know,” I said quietly. “But that wasn’t your fault. He was a hero, and he saved your life.” My stomach knotted, remembering the call about Greyson being shot and in a hospital in Germany. It was just after Izzy died, and I was a mess thinking I was about to lose my best friend. I’d flown out with Paisley and got a front-row view of how dang strong that woman was.

To paraphrase the immortal Bard, she might be little, but she was fierce. My brother’s perfect match in every way.

“You were seriously jealous of me?” Greyson frowned, like the idea was as foreign to him as Timbuktu.

“You’re a hero and got the girl. Why wouldn’t I be jealous? I was happy for you of course, but—”

“Wait, are you saying you and Pais . . . ?”

“What, ew, no! Gross.” I shook my head. Absolutely not. “She’s great, but I meant you got your happily ever after.” I cleared my throat. “I wanted that, too.”

“With Noelle?”

I blew out a breath. “I tried to forget her.”

“I know. You were a walking disaster for years.”

That was putting it mildly. The warmth of the fire was making me tired, or maybe we finally reached the breaking point to be honest about those years. “I’m not proud of what I did. I know it’s forgiven, but Noelle seems to think . . . Well, that what she did was worse. I’m not comparing our mistakes, but she can’t seem to see herself as anything more than a screwup.”

Greyson’s eyes gleamed in the firelight. It was uncanny sometimes, seeing a familiar face, nearly a mirror of my own, sitting across from me. “Then maybe you need to help her see the truth. A word of advice from a wise friend of mine: Woo the woman.”

Woo her. Challenge accepted.

Chapter thirty-nine

Cal

My wooing plans were momentarily put on hold since we flew out for back-to-back games in San Diego. Compared to the dry, biting autumn winds of Serenity Springs, this California humidity and sunshine were the dream.

What wasn’t the dream? Losing. Sure, we won Saturday night, but Sunday, when Jackson and the Carsons were in the stands, we lost big time. 6–1.

I wasn’t sure what bothered me more, knowing Jackson was in the crowd and we hadn’t delivered, or the guys ribbing me about being distracted by Noelle. I wasn’t distracted. If anything, thinking about her sharpened my focus. Wanting to impress her. But it wasn’t enough.