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I glance at the table and see that Piper and Jade are the only ones there. My eyes scan, and I see Palmer and Ramsey at the bar. It’s packed, so they don’t notice when I walk up behind them, but their conversation stops me in my tracks.
“He did not!” Ramsey laughs.
“He did. I’m telling you, Rams, I dodged a bullet with that one. He is definitely not Mr. Right. I mean, could you imagine me having to spend the rest of my life with him?” she shudders, and my heart drops to my toes.
“Maybe it’s fate that he’s here tonight,” Ramsey teases.
“You and I both know that ship has sailed.” Palmer laughs.
Having heard enough, I stalk past them and to the table where my brothers are sitting. “Can we go?”
“What?” The three of them look at me in confusion.
“Did you see her?” Declan asks.
“Did you talk to her?” This is from Orrin.
“Come on, we can grill him in the truck.” Sterling stands, nods for my brothers to do the same, and pulls the keys to Declan’s Tahoe from his pocket. He’s our DD for the night.
They must see something on my face because Orrin and Declan both slide out of the booth, and just like that, the four of us stalk out of the bar. I don’t say one single word on the way back to my place. Sterling pulls into my driveway, and I sit staring at my house. Everything inside those four walls reminds me of her. Everywhere I look, she’s there. I fucking hate this. I hate the way my chest feels as if it’s caving in from the pain of losing her. I hate the way her hurtful words bounce around in my head, and most of all, I hate that I still love her.
Wholly.
Unconditionally.
“I’m sorry I ruined your night out. Thanks for the ride.” I don’t wait for them to reply. I climb out and slam the door. I march up to my front steps and fumble with the key in the door. My hands are shaking both from anger and from pain.
I’ve never known Palmer or Ramsey to be cruel. For them to be talking about me like that. I just… I was good to her. She was…iseverything to me. How could she say those things?
Could you imagine me having to spend the rest of my life with him?
I dodged a bullet with that one.
I keep hearing her voice over and over in my head, and I just want it to stop. Her hurtful words replace the sweet sound of her laugh and that beautiful smile that makes her eyes light up. I just want it to stop.
“Fuck!” I roar, slamming my fist into the living room wall. The drywall gives way as my fist slams through it. My knuckles burn, but I don’t care. Feeling anything other than the sharp broken pieces of my heart is a welcome distraction.
The front door opens and in walks my three brothers. “Get out.” There is no heat behind my words. I tell them to leave, yet I don’t want to be alone. Not here where at every turn her memory haunts me.
“Sit down and tell us,” Orrin demands.
I fall onto the chair and rest my elbows on my knees, burying my hands in my hair. “I’ve been seeing her for months.”
“Seeing her as in?”
“As in, she was mine. Fuck, I guess she was never mine.”
“Start from the beginning,” Declan tells me.
And so I do. I start at the engagement party and don’t stop talking until I catch them up to the moment they just walked in on.
“I’m in love with her.” My voice is gravelly. “I planned to tell her that the arrangement was shit to me, that all I wanted was her. Every time I planned to tell her, something would happen, and I wouldn’t get the chance. Then last weekend at Mom and Dad’s happened. I hadn’t seen her all week. I missed the hell out of her, but I could tell something was wrong. She ended it, and here we are. Well, and you know what I heard her saying at the Tavern tonight.”
“How did we not know you two were actually dating?” Sterling asks.
“We didn’t want anyone to know. We hid it well, but I was tired of hiding how I feel about her.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Orrin tells me. “What you told us you overheard tonight, that doesn’t sound like Ramsey or Palmer to me. Maybe they were talking about someone else?”
