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“Getup.Youneedto get down there and make sure Willow keeps her mouth shut.”
My thoughts are a tangled mess of the past and the present, with Tate’s last words playing on repeat in my mind. When he appeared on the mountain, I assumed things were going to change between us, that he was there to help. But then he threw that line at me, laced with anger, and now I’m back to wondering if he’s a threat.
Making me even more desperate to see Willow.
“Snap out of it,” Pippa says as she shoves me over on the bench just outside the hospital doors and sits down. “She’s not going to let you in.”
Tell me something I don’t know.“It doesn’t matter. I’m staying.”
I can’t walk away after everything that happened on that mountain. Apart from needing to know she’s okay, I need her to know that I’m sorry.And I need to know what she remembers.
“What if we don’t want you to stay?” Pippa says, and I freeze.
We? Ouch.My eyes flash to hers as she watches me, her face shadowed in disappointment.
“You don’t even know what happened.”
“It doesn’t matter.” She throws my words back at me. “She’s my sister.”
“So that’s that. You’re just going to judge me, without knowing any of the information?” I don’t know why I’m arguing when she’d only judge memoreif she did know the truth.
Seth steps forward and hesitantly reaches for my shoulder. “We have to get back anyway, Jesse. We’ve got meetings, and—”
“I don’t give a fuck about any of that right now. I left her before; I won’t do it again.”
Seth sighs as his eyes flash to Pippa’s for a beat. “Yes, you left her. But you left because you don’t belong here. This isn’t your world anymore. You’re not a small-town guy. You live in San Francisco. In an apartment. With a doorman. You’re onbillboards. This isn’t your life. You left her here with unanswered questions, and none of that’s changed. Jesse…”
He continues on, but I don’t bother listening to the rest of his grand speech, because he’s wrong. Yes, I left her yesterday to go back to my life, or was it the day before? God, I don’t know. But that’s not the time I’m referring to. And I can’t do it to her again.
“Would you have left Amber?” I ask, because it worked for me earlier today.Fuck, has it really only been hours since I first found out she was missing?
Seth scowls, reading through my intentions, but then shocks me with his response. “I didfuckingleave her!” He raises his voice. “I knew it would be the end of us…and I left.”
“What?” My jaw actually drops.
“All you need to know is that we were married over a decade ago and I left. We got divorced. We were done. And yet we still made our way back to each other. You don’t need to work it all out today, Jesse. You have a lifetime.”
When he’s finished, Seth shrugs as though he didn’t just rewrite my belief of his history while I stare at him blankly. I have so many questions, but since none of them are going to help me in this situation, I store them away for later.
“You don’t understand. Ineedto see her.”
I feel like a broken record but they’re just not getting it.
“You’re right. We don’t understand,” Pippa jumps in, standing up with her arms in the air. “So, tell us. What the hell happened up there? And why was Tate involved?”
“What about Tate?”
Goddammit.
Of course, Willow’s dad chooses that moment to walk outside, making us all fall silent for a beat.
“How do you know Tate?” Pippa eventually asks, and even I know it’s a stupid question. He was their goddamn school principal.
He raises a single eyebrow before his gaze flashes to mine, his usual calm demeanor gone. “I just came out here for some air. But Jesse, Willow doesn’t want any visitors. It’s probably best if you go.”
Yeah, that’s not happening.
I open my mouth to argue but Pippa cuts me off.
