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“Pull your head out of your ass—she’s hurting!” Timothy exclaims.
“She left him!”
“Because he—” Timothy’s voice drops abruptly and I can’t hear what he says, but I don’t need to. They’re talking about what happened between me and Jessie.
“No.” Celia’s voice is incredulous.
“Nic hurt her and you took his side—” Timothy’s voice drops again.
Fuck. This is all my fault. I don’t want to cause conflict between any of the Foleys. I know I hurt Jessie last night. She hurt me first. But that hurt should’ve ended with us and it didn’t. I’ve made such a mess of things.
There’s no way I can sit here. I get up and walk quietly upstairs to my room. After a moment’s indecision, I go through the bathroom and knock softly on the door to Jessie’s bedroom.
There’s no answer.
I push open the door. Her room is exactly how we left it, but her suitcase is gone. She’s gone back to New York.
It’s over. Jessie told me what she wanted and now I should go too. I can’t stay here and cause more problems for the Foleys. Maybe we just need a little time and space, all of us. I book a flight to LA. A car to and from each airport. By the time I finish packing, my head is pounding. I want to crawl under the blankets on Jessie’s bed and sleep for a week.
There’s a knock on my bedroom door. Timothy doesn’t wait before walking in. His eyes land on my suitcase, sitting open on my bed. “Really?” he says in a flat voice. “You’re running away too?”
“I’m going home.”
Timothy drops onto the bed with a sigh, falling onto his back and rubbing his eyes. “I’m pissed at you right now.”
I fucked up, and now I have to face the consequences. I take a deep breath and brace myself. “My ride will be here in twenty minutes. Say what you need to say.”
“Jessie overheard you calling her a convenient fuck.”
I shrug. “She called me a sentient sex toy.”
Timothy groans. “The hell is wrong with you two?”
A lot, I suspect.
He stops rubbing his eyes, resting his hand on his chest as he stares at the ceiling. “You tell her boyfriend you love her, you tell her not to marry him, then you run off and marry the worst woman on the planet, and when you’re finally free and you have a shot at something with Jessie, you trample her feelings then leave when she lashes out at you.”
It’s not that simple. Nothing ever is.
He sighs. “For once in your goddamn life, you need to make a decision. No more playing around with her feelings. Either you love her, or you let her go.”
I close my suitcase and wheel it over to the door.
“Nic,” Timothy says my name in warning, sitting up. The look on his face is one I’ve never seen before. It’s dark. Angry. “Do you love Jessie?”
My stomach flips and I lie. “No.”
Timothy pushes to his feet. “Camden walked away at the first hurdle too. Looks like neither of you deserves her.”
I agree, so I say nothing.
“And another thing,” he says, joining me in the door. He stares at me for a minute, like he’s struggling with something. “I love you like a brother, but—” he kicks me in the shin. Even though he’s not wearing shoes it hurts enough that I hop onto my other foot, which makes my head scream.
He stomps off. I give him sixty seconds, then follow.
Mina’s waiting for her turn at me at the bottom of the stairs. If she wants to knock my head off my shoulders, I don’t care.
“You helped me work things out with Timothy,” she says in a quiet voice. “I can help you. But you have to stay. Give Jessie a little space, then go talk to her—you don’t even have to jump off a building to impress her.”
