AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Every single one of them. Even Coach.
I wouldn’t throw that kind of loyalty and friendship in their faces by telling them I felt like this was some sort of death.
The bros who lived next door pulled into their driveway, and everyone else lined the street. Except Rush. He wasn’t about to park his precious baby at a curb. For shame. He pulled in the driveway behind Win and Lars.
I sat in the back seat of Kruger’s Audi even after he turned off the engine. I was in no hurry to get out. In no hurry to get on with learning how to live without Arsen.
Yeah, he asked me to give him an hour.
Please don’t give up on me.
His words stuttered my heart. Made my insides weep. It was likely impossible for me to give up on him, but on myself? Easy.
I knew as soon as he stepped into the police station with the senator and their barracuda of a lawyer that things would change. I was no match for them. Of course he would be influenced by his own father. I couldn’t even blame him for it. Hell, here I was, fourteen years later, still living under the influence of mine.
In some ways, it would have been easier if Arsen believed I was the one who tried to set him up. It would have made our breakup easier to swallow. But having him kiss me, calm me, whisper that he believed me would only make him choosing his father that much worse.
“I’ll go unlock the door,” Jess said, pulling me from my thoughts.
From the shadows of the back seat, I stared out the window, noting how our friends waited at the front door to be let inside. Even the bros who lived next door had gone to our place instead of theirs.
I wasn’t sure how that made me feel. There were too many emotions swirling inside me to pick one. I was like a vat of alphabet soup, so many letters with infinite ways to arrange them.
Instead of getting out of the sports car, Jess rotated, popping her head between the front seats to find me with her brown eyes. “Should I come back there and hug you?”
“Woman, if you climb into the back seat of my car with any man but me, there will be hell to pay.”
“He’s my brother,” she sassed.
“I forbid it.”
“I forbid it,” she mocked.
“You guys fit back here?” I wondered.
Kruger made a smug sound. “You’d be surprised the places you can fit when motivated.”
Jess gasped. “Ben!”
I cringed. “That’s my sister you’re talking about.”
“You asked.” He defended himself. He wasn’t ashamed.
I thought of the times I’d sat in Arsen’s lap in the front seat of the Mercedes. How we never got to break in the back seat.
Jess’s arm pushed into my space, her fingers wiggling to get my attention. I took her hand because brothers don’t leave their sisters hanging.
“He’ll be here,” she said, catching me off guard.
“What?”
“Arsen. He’ll be here as soon as he can.”
I shook my head. “We can’t be together.”
“Do you want to be?”
Again, she caught me by surprise. I expected a denial. An agreement. Not a question.
