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Sav cocked her head to the side and picked up her iced coffee to swirl it around noisily like she always did. “If you’d like to call it that, sure.”
I looked back to the patio and weighed my options. I definitely would’ve been able to out-run Griff before my injury, but with a walking boot on, I wasn’t so sure.
“Not getting out of this, bud,” Griff smirked. He could clearly tell what I was thinking.
I clenched my jaw and threw a kitchen chair out to sit my ass down. “Fine. What’s up?”
She pursed her lips at me. “That is what we want to ask you,” she pointed out.
I looked from her to Griff, who was still blocking the sliding glass door. “You guys are kidding me, right? Like this is a joke. Ha ha?”
She shook her head.
“What, so you’re some kind of therapist now and he’s your muscle?” I asked incredulously.
“Interesting,” she said haughtily. “He’s trying to get out of talking about it, isn’t he?” She looked to her husband for backup. He nodded solemnly. “You see, we thought that you had your heart broken. But then, it was funny to hear at the rink thatyouwere actually the heartbreaker,andthat you displayed the breakup pretty publicly. The thing is,” she gestured to me, “this is not the face of a ruthless heartbreaker. This is the face of a…” she snapped her fingers thinking of the word.
“A sad, sad, little man,” Griff said, shaking his head.
“I’m not little,” I furiously clapped back. “I bet-”
‘Duke!” Sav cut in. “We are trying to ask you what the hell is going on so we can help. You’re heartbroken. Then I hear from Craig that Claire can’t even eat because she’s so upset. She's trying to recover, Duke. What the hell did you do?”
I winced at my sister’s words. She couldn’t eat? That felt like a stab to the chest.
I sat there looking from my sister to Griff…
Then I finally spilled the whole thing.
When I got to the end of the story, Sav was shaking her head at me.
“You are a scaredy-cat,” she said disappointingly.
I pushed my chair back and stood up. I wouldn’t stay here if she was just going to make fun of me for my actions. “You’re a shitty therapist, Sav,” I muttered.
But Griff still stood in the doorway. He placed a hefty hand on my shoulder and forced me to sit back down. My jaw tightened. As soon as I recovered, I was definitely going to challenge him to a locker boxing match so I could beat his ass.
“You can’t be scared to love, Duke,” Sav said, reaching across the table to pat my hand. “I was afraid after what happened with Nick that you’d end up having some kind of emotional trauma, but you never showed it up until now.”
“Emotional trau–”
“Yes,” she powered on. “Your fear of being in a relationship with Claire goes directly back to that. And I feel horrible for the way that affected you, but I think I was so busy picking up the pieces of my life that I didn’t help you deal with the loss enough. Griff and I were both able to lean on each other a lot. We were able to talk about it with one another, and I’m pissed at my past self for not including you enough in those talks.”
I propped my elbows on the table and dropped my head in my hands. I was not going to cry. I was not going to lose it in front of my sister and brother-in-law. Nope. Not me. This wasn’t going to…
“Buddy, it’s okay,” Griff said, patting me on the back.
And that made me kind of lose it.
Sav got up and came around the table to hug my head into her stomach.
“What if something bad happens? What if–”
“Then wouldn’t it be worth it?” Sav placed her hands on my shoulders and lightly pushed me at an arm's length away so she could make eye-contact with me. She was little but her grip was strong. “Wouldn't the time that you did get to spend together be worth the hurt?Ifthe hurt were to happen,” she clarified.
“I don’t know!” I said with wide eyes. That was the problem.
“It is!” She nodded. “It is worth it, Duke. Why do you think I chose to love again? I could have closed myself off to the rest of the world after Nick died, but I knew that loving was worth the hurt. Look at Johnny and tell me loving Nick wasn’t worth it. Look at Indie. If I didn't give it a go with Griff, she wouldn't even exist right now. So even if it doesn't work out, even if something bad does happen, the good is worth it. What you learn about yourself is worth it,” she said firmly.
