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“If I wouldn’t have been born, my dad wouldn’t have targeted the Iron Fiends in his scheme to become US attorney general and then get screwed over by the bad dudes who were helping him,” I offered. I wasn’t trying to be one up on her, but to show her we all had things done to and around us that we couldn’t stop.
“Then why aren’t you sitting in the storeroom with me every day?” Faye laughed.
Olive put her arm around Faye’s shoulder and pulled her in for a hug. “You can be sad and mad about what happened, Faye, but you can’t push me away.” She nodded to Sloane and me. “You can’t push any of us away.”
“Sometimes I just don’t feel like talking, Olive. I come in here because nothing demands I be happy or tell them what’s wrong.” Faye leaned her head back and closed her eyes.
“Then we’ll just sit with you. We don’t need always to talk,” Sloane offered. “Hell, this place is pretty peaceful. I’ll need to remember to come here when I want a place to read.”
Faye smiled and opened her eyes. “I’m sorry, guys. I just feel bad about what happened, and then I totally messed things up with Fade. I didn’t want to be a sad sack you guys had to worry about.”
Olive squeezed her shoulder. “Faye, I’m only going to say this once, and you better remember it. We don’t care if you’re mad, sad, happy, or crazy. We will always be here for you. Nothing can stop us from caring about you.”
“Even if I keep making the stupidest mistakes like going back again and again to a piece of a shit man until he tries to blow me up?” Faye laughed.
“You only get one more pass on that one, Faye. I’m hopeful you won’t do that ever again.” Olive pressed a kiss to the side of her head. “You are worth so much more than how Anthony treated you. Don’t ever forget that.”
“Fine,” Faye sighed. “But I reserve the right to come here when I need to be alone.”
“Only if I’m not here with a good book first,” Sloane muttered.
I elbowed her in the side. “Stop.”
Sloane rolled her eyes. “She can’t have all the good hiding places.”
“You just got married, Sloane. I don’t think you would already need to be hiding from your husband.” Faye wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “Speaking of, how does it feel to be a married woman?”
Faye was done talking about herself.
I couldn’t blame her.
It was easy to talk about other people instead of seeing yourself and what you thought were mistakes you made.
The more she did it, though, the sooner she was going to be able to forgive herself.
God knew we didn’t blame Faye for the gym explosion.
Now it was Faye’s turn to figure that out.
*
Chapter Twenty-Four
Throttle
Dove was laid out on her stomach next to me, and I drew lazy circles on her bare back.
“I’m worried about her.”
“Who?” I asked.
“Faye. I don’t really know her, but I can see how upset she is. She blames herself for the explosion.”
“She shouldn’t. How was she supposed to know the dude was that unhinged that he was going to try to kill her after he broke up with her?” It wasn’t Faye’s fault what happened. “She needs to stop thinking about the dude. He’s not worth her time.”
“That was the perfect answer,” Dove sighed. “You may be a little rough around the edges, Throttle, but you always say the right thing.”
“Then I guess you better keep me around, doll.”
