Page 307 of Power Play

“I’m planning to help him do something stupid in a controlled environment.”

“That wasn’t what I meant.”

“I know what you meant.”

The faint brightness disappeared from Briggs’s face when he looked at me one last time. Then he left.

The door closed behind him, and the apartment became too quiet.

I stared at the place where he had stood. Briggs loved everyone loudly, indiscriminately, and with the emotional boundaries of an overly friendly dog. I had watched him forgive insults before the other person finished delivering them. I had seen him welcome strangers into our lives because they looked lonely at a party.

Tonight, Briggs couldn’t be my friend.

The knowledge found every weak place inside me and pushed.

“I’m sorry.”

Bliss sat beside me again, but she didn’t wrap me in her arms this time. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“I wanted to.”

Aura shook her head. “Stop saying that.”

I looked at her through swollen eyes.

“You wanted to want to tell us,” she said. “That isn’t the same thing.”

“I was scared.”

“Of us?”

“Of it becoming real.”

Bliss’s voice softened. “It was real whether you told us or not.”

“I know that now.”

“You knew it then,” Easton said.

Aura shot him a look. “Ease up.”

“No, Briggs was right about one thing. She knew.” Easton sat on the edge of the coffee table across from me, his forearms braced over his thighs. “Maybe she couldn’t admit it to everyone else, but she knew exactly how serious Ryan was.”

“I did.”

“Then explain it.”

I stared down at the red marks crossing my palm. “I don’t know how.”

“Try.”

The command was quieter than anything Ryan had said to me that night.

I closed my fingers to hide the marks. “My parents don’t yell.”

Cade remained near the door. “What does that mean?”

“They don’t have to.” I wiped my cheeks, but the tears kept coming. “My father can ruin an entire part of my life without raising his voice. He asks questions until everything I believe starts sounding childish. Then my mother gets sad because I’ve upset him, and somehow I end up apologizing before I even understand what I did.”