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“You can’t tell. No one. Not my parents. Not Waylon. Not Izzy. Especially not Izzy.”
Fuck, of course he’s going to tell her. She’s his girlfriend. He tells her everything.
My gut tightens painfully, and I jump to a stand, pacing, trying to relieve the anxiety simmering to the surface before it boils over completely.
“Then promise me that was the last time.”
I whirl toward him, arm spread, “Fine. I promise.”
He cocks his head. “I’ll make you show me your arms every day if I have to, to make sure you’re not lying.”
My eyes bug, and I look around the room, a disbelieving laugh scraping up from my throat. “Seriously?” And before I can think better of it, I cross my arms, and meet his unbending gaze, and say, “And what if I decide to do it somewhere not so obvious. What are you gonna do then?”
The second the words leave me, I regret them.
Heat envelops me, no doubt turning me beet-red. Lips mashed together, all I can do is watch as Mason arches a challenging brow. “Sure you wanna risk finding out?”
I stare at him for a long beat. Surely he can’t mean that…
Nope. Wait. Who am I kidding?
This is Mason. Of course he means it. He’s nearly as obstinate as my sister. Especially when she’s not here to be the bad cop.
Rolling my eyes, I give a short, little shake of my head.
“That’s what I thought.”
I look down at my lap. “It’s not fair.”
“What isn’t?”
“It doesn’t hurt anyone. It?—”
“It hurts you. And therefore, it hurts me, and everyone else who loves you.”
At that, I go completely and utterly still. “I don’t…”
“You don’t what, Jeremy?” He all but growls. He shoots off the bed, and scrubs his hands down his face. “God, when will you get it through your thick skull?’
He whips toward me. “You are loved, Jeremy,” he says fiercely, the words wrenching from his chest. Glittering black orbs clash with mine, bright with unburied emotion. “You are so damn loved by so many people, and you just…you won’t let any of us in.”
Ouch.
Flinching, I curl back, arms folding across each other like I could keep his words from piercing me.
Emotion ripples across his face—anger and something else, something like desperation.
“What did I do?”
Blinking, I shake my head, trying to keep up. Where is this coming from?
“What did I do to make you shut me out? For years now, you’ve been…pulling away. Just tell me what I did.”
You chose my sister.
The words sit right there, on the tip of my tongue. I have to quickly look away, worried he’ll see the mess of it all in my eyes. The truth, in all its ugly, unfair glory.
Unfair, because Mason has no idea. No idea I was even an option.
