“Are you serious?”
“Do you?”
“You know I do.”
His eyes darken. Drake and Ava are twins, but they don’t look a lot alike. Where he’s sharp, she’s soft. His hair is more like copper, hers is like sunlight. But I see the same pain in his eyes as I saw in hers after we lost our baby.
“If you love her, then you’ll leave her alone.”
“Leave her alone? Why would I do that? She’s my girlfriend.”
“Yeah, and you’re ruining her life!” Drake takes an aggressive step closer. I’ve seen him upset, but it’s never once been aimed at me.
I don’t know what to say. There is something about anger and rage that shuts me down.
“She’s giving up everything she wanted to do to follow you,” Drake says.
“That’s not true.” Each word slices through my teeth.
“Really?” Drake scoffs bitterly. “Did you know she was accepted into an industrial interior design program at Whisper Ridge College? That’s local. She could live here and save buckets of money. Graduate without debt. Be around her family. But she’s not even considering it becauseyougot her pregnant, and that found her cancer, so she thinks she owes you something. She’s giving up her wants so you can chase your stupid baseball dream.”
A lump hardens in my throat. Ava never said anything about going to school here. And the only thing negative she’s ever said about Washington is she’ll miss her family. We both will, but it’s not like we’re across the country. We’re a few states away.
My tongue is locked. Anger holds the words behind my teeth. Hurt chokes them back down to the pit of my gut.
Drake shakes his head. “You didn’t even know she applied, did you?”
I didn’t, and I don’t know why she wouldn’t tell me.
“What does that say?” he barrels on. “She wanted a way out. She wanted to get awayfrom you.”
No. That’s not true. But his words are sharpened blades to the chest. I ball my fists against the ache.
“Face it, Ryder. At first, she was following you because she didn’t want a broken home for her kid. But now, that’s not an issue. Now, she has options.”
I shoot to my feet and butt my chest to his. Drake is taller, but I’m stronger. Working on a ranch, playing ball, that helped a lot more than stacking shelves of screwdrivers. “I don’t know where this is coming from, but if you talk about my kid again like they were some kind of mistake, I’m going to break your nose.”
Drake has the decency to hold his tongue. For a second. “She wants to go to this program; she wants to be a designer, not an architect.”
“And she can be!” I say, tossing my hands in the air. “I’d never stand in her way—”
“But you are,” he tosses back. “You made her a statistic, exactly like our mom. I won’t watch Ava waste away.”
Is that where this is coming from? My head is hazy, but it makes a bit of sense. His experiences as a kid would naturally give him certain fears, right?
Their parents were young when Ava and Drake were born. They both struggled for four years until turning to drugs and alcohol, leaving the twins in and out of foster care until they both relinquished their parental rights before their kids’ seventh birthday.
“I’d never hurt her like that, Drake.”
“You don’t get it. She’ssettling. She’s been settling all this time.”
“What are you talking about? We’ve been together for two years.”
“Wake up. You were convenient. For both of us. We didn’t have to make friends when you were just there. It was easier than dealing with the other jerks at school. You’re familiar, but someday we were going to part ways with you, Ryder.”
Why is he saying this? I know it’s not true. I take a long breath. “Did something else happen? Drake, we’ve been friends for eight years.”
We’ve been basically inseparable.
