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Xander
Six weeks later…
“Look what the cat dragged in,”Tash said as I approached her at the bar.
“Tash, you’re looking good.” I planted a kiss on her cheek.
“This place looks good on you.” She grinned. “The usual?”
“Actually, I’ll take a soda.”
“Don’t tell me… you’re off the smokes and the liquor?” I nodded, and she snorted. “What the hell do you do for fun around here?” Her cackle filled our section of the bar, and Jenson, the bartender, threw me a questioning look.
“Don’t mind her,” I said. “She’s from out-of-town.”
“Rixon is hardly out of… oh, whatever.” Tash’s eyes crinkled. “It’s good to see you, Xander.”
“You too.”
“How have you been?”
“Good. Things are… good.”
“Are you sure? Because I’m not gonna lie, I was worried when you up and left town without so much as a phone call.”
“It was complicated.”
“The blonde.”
“How did you—”
“I saw her, with your brother, his wife, and their kid. She’s a student at the high school, isn’t she?”
“She was.” I nodded. I’d heard from Hailee that she was due to graduate next week. There would be no fancy ceremony, but they were having a family celebration. I hadn’t been invited; not that I expected to be.
“Shit, Xander. A teenager. What the fuck were you—”
“Ssh, keep your voice down.”
“What the hell happened?” Her eyes bugged.
“We got caught, Jase lost his shit, and he and Cam thought it would be best if I left town for a while.”
She let out a low whistle. “Shit, that’s some kind of fucked up.”
The permanent knot in my stomach twisted.
Tash wasn’t wrong, Halston looked good on me. I was done with the cigarettes and booze. I was in therapy, and I’d recently started volunteering at a local youth center. But no matter how much I’d turned things around, I still had a gaping hole in my chest.
I doubted it would ever disappear.
Leaving Peyton was hands down the hardest thing I’d ever done. But Jase and my brother were right. I had nothing to offer her except a boat load of emotional baggage and issues she didn’t need holding her back.
Our relationship had been a whirlwind, borne out of pain and grief and darkness. She’d wanted a hero, and part of me had needed to be her savior. But if time and space had taught me anything, it was that another person couldn’t fix you. Only you could do that for yourself.
Fuck, I was starting to sound like my therapist.
“So here you are,” Tash added.
