I bob my head, my jaw working to the side as I try to contain that surge of emotion barreling through me, threatening to give me away.
“Is, uh… Dani up in your room?” Wily rests his hands on Satch’s shoulders, giving them a light rub while he stares at me. “Is she doing okay after last night? She looked pretty shook.”
“Oh, yeah.” Nylah eyes pop wide. “I heard what happened. We arrived just as the ambulance was pulling away.”
Now everyone’s looking at me, and I don’t know what the fuck to say. Thankfully, my toast pops and I spin to deal with that, the room going quiet as the people behind me obviously start to wonder what the hell I’m not saying.
Bacon sizzles in the frying pan. My knife spreads the peanut butter. And finally, I can’t stand this awkward silence anymore.
I talk into the void before anyone else can. “I dropped her home.”
After she broke up with me.
She’s not coming to Texas.
I’m single once again.
And I’m fucking heartbroken.
Sniffing, I manage to rasp, “She just needed some space.”
“Is she okay, though? She seemed traumatized,” Satch softly asks.
I swallow, glancing over my shoulder, then back to the safety of my toast. “She was. She’ll need some time to process, I imagine.”
“Well, at least she’s got you to help her,” Nylah murmurs, and I can’t contain my dry, bitter snicker.
Shaking my head, I pick up my toast and spin to stare at them. Opening my mouth, I’m about to tell them, but the wordsdry up. All I can do is shake my head, and as I walk out of the room, I manage to murmur, “No, she doesn’t.”
“What does that mean?” Carson calls after me, and I silently beg him not to follow, but of course he fucking trails me down the hallway. I’m heading for the stairs. I can’t do the dining table with everyone. They’re probably all going to be talking about their futures. Their summers.
Zander and Sienna will be taking Zoey to California. They leave in a few days with her parents. They’re going to do a road trip, take a week or so to get there.
Wily and Satch are heading to Fledgling for a week to spend time with her parents before driving to Arizona.
I think Nylah and Carson are going to visit her grandparents, then are heading across to see his mom and have a vacation in San Francisco before returning to Nolan.
And I can’t remember what Grady and Blake are doing. I think they’re catching up with his parents, then going to some lake house thing with her family before heading into the forest for a few days.
And what am I doing?
I’m driving down to Dallas, all alone, to move in with my family and do… who the fuck knows.
I may as well start looking for a job immediately. What’s the point of having a summer break all by myself?
“Did Dani break up with you?” Carson asks,way too loudly, just as I’m passing the archway leading into the dining room.
“What?” Blake blinks, her spoon rattling into her cereal bowl. “When?”
I sigh, dipping my chin before throwing a glare at Carson.
He winces but doesn’t look that sorry. Wily and Nylah bunch into the hallway with worried frowns while everyone at the dining room table looks on with sad, sympathetic expressions.
Gritting my teeth, I glance at each one of them before quickly muttering the truth. “Yes, she broke up with me. Last night was some kind of trigger, and she’s decided she’s not ready for a relationship. So we’re done.”
“Aw, Ty. I’m so sorry,” Sienna whispers, looking about ready to cry.
Why’s she so sad? She has her happy family. The love of her life is sitting next to her, running his hand across her shoulders and comforting her.
