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The kind there’s no coming back from.
Frantic, I trip getting out of bed, try to shake off the fog of sleep as I hop around, jerking on the first pants and T-shirt I can lay eyes on. I race out the front door, shoes in one hand, phone, wallet, and keys in the other.
What if it’s Matty? Damn it, I can’t breathe even thinking about it. His little body. That joyful face and staggering mind. His generous joyful heart.
I wish you were my dad.
I double over, bracing a hand on the wall as I try to breathe through the searing pain in my chest. If it was Matty, Cammy wouldn’t leave him. But if it was Matty, and Cammy was okay… there’s no chance in hell she wouldn’t have called me herself.
It doesn’t matter what’s been going on between us. She would have called, because she would need me. More than Jeremy, more than even Julia—I’m the one she can count on. The one she turns to. No matter what. Forever. She knows it.
I know it.Christ, I feel like I’ve been back-checked into the boards.
Why the hell did I ever think walking away was the right choice? That giving them up was even fucking possible?
I can’t lose them.
I can’t. I love them.
I love them more than my own life. For once my eyes are open, and I’m praying for the chance to tell them. To beg Cammy for another chance to show her that I can be the man she deserves. That I want her in that white dress, smiling up at me. I want her today, tomorrow, and every moment of her forever.
They have to be okay. They have to. I wouldknowif they weren’t.
Where the hell is the elevator!
No missed calls or texts from Cammy, but my notifications are blowing up and I’m too terrified to open them.
Pull it together, man. Be ready.
I’ve got one shoe on by the time the elevator doors glide open and I get a look at Jeremy’s ravaged expression.
They’re going to be okay. Because they have to.
Hands limp at my sides, I stand. “Tell me.”
Jeremy lurches forward and—
“The fuck?Did you justpunchme?”
Based on the way he’s furiously cradling his hand, looks like it. And then I’m smiling, my heart starting to beat again. Because this fucker isn’t gutted… he’spissed. And I’m about to drop to my damn knees for that, but I don’t want to risk Matty’s dad doing something stupid like breaking his other hand trying to hurt me. Especially when I’m going to win my girl back, right out from under him.
“Dude, what’s your issue?”
Jeremy sucks a breath, and stalks toward me. “My issue?” Clearly, I’m the only one who’s feeling some relief. “My issue is that you’re a goddamned hypocrite, Meyers. She’sin love with you!”
The needle screeches off the vinyl and I blink.
“She’s okay? Matty is okay?”
“What? Yeah, they’re fine. Physically. But when they hear—”
That torn up spot in my chest starts to beat again. One thump. Two… two thousand.
“Shelovesme.” All this time, I’ve been reminding myself there was a difference between love and being in love. Trying to wrestle my emotions back across the line to protect her and Matty. But I’ve been an idiot to think anyone could protect the two people I love most in the world better than I would. “Hey, Jeremy. Man, your hand doesn’t look so good. Come in and I’ll get you some ice.”
He laughs, but the sound is bitter and again I see that shift between pain and rage and back again in his eyes.
“She told me last night. I thought with you two broken up and then you were out with that brunette—”
