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“I never drove. I didn’t even have my license!” Jenna protested.
“You didn’t drive, but you participated. We all did,” Regina said, tears shimmering in her eyes. “Not one of us ever said no. Holly’s right. We were all responsible.”
“Cassidy may have been the one driving the car when the accident happened, but the rest of us all took turns that night. It was just Cassidy’s misfortune that she skidded in the rain.”
Regina nodded. “It could have been any of us. I know I wasn’t a very good driver.” She let out a painful laugh. “At seventeen, who is?”
“I didn’t have my seat belt on because I was hanging out my window. How stupid was that?” Holly banged her fists on her legs. “If I’d been wearing it, I wouldn’t be in this chair.”
“We promised we would never talk about this!” Jenna cried. “I don’t want to remember that night!”
“I have to talk about this! It’s been eating me up inside all this time!” Holly spit out. “For years I’ve been hiding this, afraid of what everyone would think of us if they found out. But it came at a price. And Cassidy’s had to pay that price all by herself.”
“We thought we were invincible,” Cassidy said with a bitter laugh. “I know I did. Bad things never happened to girls like us, right?”
“Right,” Holly said with a shake of her head. “But something bad did happen, didn’t it? And I don’t think we should let this vow hold us back anymore. As long as we’re keeping secrets, we’re still stuck in the past.”
The sound of footsteps echoed in the stillness of the stables. Cassidy whipped her head around, shock coursing through her as she saw Tate emerging from the shadows.
* * *
Tate moved out of the darkness, making his presence known to all the girls. Someone let out a gasp. He heard Cassidy call out his name. All of their attention was now focused on him.
“I need to talk to Cassidy,” he fumed. “You all need to leave us alone.”
He could barely look at them, didn’t want to lash out at them in his current state of fury. He’d heard enough of their conversation to know that Cassidy hadn’t been alone in her actions. All of the girls had been part of the game, although none had been brave enough to come clean at the time.
He was so angry at the way they’d hidden the truth. They’d placed the entire burden on Cassidy’s shoulders, and she’d suffered for it over the years. She’d lost everything. If they’d banded together and supported her, perhaps she would have been strong enough to stay in West Falls. Perhaps their foolish actions could have served as a cautionary tale for all the teenagers who texted while driving or treated their cars as a right rather than a privilege.
At the harsh sound of his voice, Jenna quickly scrambled away from the stables. Regina cast a sorrowful glance at her cousin, then slowly walked toward the door. Holly wheeled over to him, her expression mutinous as she confronted him.
“Don’t let what you overheard change how you feel. Please, Tate. What you and Cassidy have, it’s one in a million.” Her blue eyes were beseeching him to tread lightly with Cassidy’s heart.
“Please,” he barked, his anger rising by the second. “I just want to talk to Cassidy.”
Surprise flared in Holly’s eyes. He had never talked to her this way, but he was so disappointed over what she’d done that he could barely look at her. He didn’t want to be civil. There would be time later for the two of them to talk it out. But now, all he wanted was Cassidy.
Please Lord, give me the courage to tell Cassidy how I truly feel about her.
It wasn’t easy laying himself bare to her. Making himself vulnerable scared him. It brought back all the nightmarish memories from when he’d lost her. The thought of falling on his face terrified him, but, if there was a chance she felt the same way he did, he would risk it all.
Cassidy’s eyes were wide with fear. “How much did you hear?” Her voice sounded raw.
“Everything.” There were no more secrets between them. Not now. Not ever, he hoped.
One look in Cassidy’s eyes told him everything. Hurt, regret, pain, fear.
Cassidy covered her face with her hands. “I’m so sorry.” Her voice was filled with remorse.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” All the agony he felt came out in his voice.
“It wouldn’t have changed anything,” she said, blinking back tears. “And we vowed never to tell, never to speak of it. I didn’t want to drag all the other girls down with me.”
His frustration bubbled over. “It would have changed everything! Everyone blamed you—”
“Because I was driving when the car skidded off the road.”
He reached out and grabbed her by the shoulders, wanting to gently shake some sense into her. Was she still shouldering all the blame? She couldn’t possibly think she owned this all by herself.
