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“Max,” Brooke sighs. “What’s going on?”
Max doesn’t respond for a while and I wonder if he’s shutting down, refusing to give her any answers, or maybe he’s reverted back to his old ways and has her held down with his tongue down her throat making it impossible to call for help.
No. Brooke is strong, even when she’s hurting, she’d still be able to beat his ass. That woman can certainly handle herself.
I’m about to get up and close my door when his low murmurs come through the wall, making me feel like an absolute bitch for listening. I mean, I should be punished. Surely this is some sort of crime, right? No matter how innocent it started out.
“I can’t get past what I did to you,” he finally tells her.
“What do you mean?”
“I treated you like shit when we were together. You were the best thing that ever happened to me and I took it for granted. I hurt you in a big way and I’ll never forgive myself for it.”
“I… I’m confused. Why are you telling me this now? It’s nearly been a year.”
“Honestly, I wasn’t planning on telling you at all,” he says. “I just wanted to move on and let you go, but then summer happened.”
“Summer?” she questions with a strange tone in her voice. “You don’t mean?”
“What? Oh. no… no. Not that.”
“What are you talking about, Max?”
He lets out a sigh, one I can even hear through the walls, making it clear that whatever he’s trying to say isn’t too easy. “My cousin. You remember Ryan?” he questions, there’s a slight pause before he continues. “He was in a car accident. A drunk driver ran a red light and took him out.”
Brooke gasps as my heart rate picks up and I feel myself straining to hear a little better.
Shit. I should get up and close the door right now.
Damn it. I can’t. My curiosity is too much and I doubt I’ll get all this out of Brooke. Hell, the fact that I haven’t heard this from Nate tells me he doesn’t even know about it.
“Is he alright?” Brooke questions as I wonder if Ryan is also one of Nate’s cousins or if he’s on Maxen’s other side of the family.
“No,” Maxen says, softly. “He’ll never walk again. His pelvis and legs were crushed beneath the dash. He’s lucky to be alive, but if you asked him, he’d say otherwise.”
“Shit,” Brooke cries. “I’m so sorry.”
“I’m not here to get your sympathy or pity,” Max tells her. “I just wanted to let you know that his accident has sort of put life into perspective for me and has had me thinking about all the things I’ve fucked up in my life. Yet the only thing I regret is how I treated you.”
“What about all the other girls you fucked around on?”
“None of them meant what you meant to me. You’re the only one who I let inside and when things started to get real, I panicked.” Brooke sighs and he continues. “I really did love you, Brooke, and I hate that I hurt you. I hate it even more that this prick was willing to do the same. You don’t deserve that, especially after what I’ve already put you through.”
“No, and I didn’t deserve it when you did it to me either.”
“No, you didn’t,” he tells her. “I don’t think I’ve ever apologized for it.”
“I’ve never given you a chance to get that close.”
“No,” he laughs. “You sure as hell haven’t.”
With that, my eavesdropping guilt becomes too much and I silently get up and close the door as gently as I can. I can’t keep listening to this. I’m sure Brooke will talk to me about it when she’s ready, and if she doesn’t, I’ll force it out of her. But this seems too personal.
Though, one thing I do know is that what he was saying wasn’t a game. Nobody could lie like that. This was pure and right from the bottom of his heart. He bore his soul to her and I just hope she has the strength to accept his apology and move on.
I bring up my studying playlist on my phone and turn up the speaker as loud as it will go before hitting play. It’s time to focus. I have a few hours before Nate gets home and when he does, I want to be all his. Not one bit of studying left to get in our way.
Chapter 16
“How am I watching this?” I groan as I look at the TV with a cringe.
Brooke’s face brightens with absolute pleasure as she watches some old vampire guy tear the head off some other guy who is apparently the bad guy. “Don’t act like you don’t love it,” she tells me. “You watch ‘Game of Thrones’ like it’s a religion. If you’re obsessed with that, then surely, you must like this too.”
