I nod against her, my emotions getting the better of me once more. “Yeah.”
“Good.” She gets up from her seat, wiping her face again. “Now, I’m going to get the ice cream. You find the movie,” she says, tossing the remote into my lap and heading for the kitchen.
Guilt consumes me as I watch her leave. I should have told her. I should have told them all. I took the cowards way out when I left town. I was so consumed by my own grief and sadness that I didn’t even consider the other people involved.
I was selfish.
And my actions could very well have ruined the only thing I’ve held onto over the years.
There’s a knock at the front door and hope blooms in my chest for half a second before I shake it off.
There’s no way it’s him.
“I’ll get it,” Bella shouts from the hallway as she hurries toward the door.
I hear hushed voices from the other side of the wall and none of them belong to the one person I want it to.
“You’ve got a visitor,” Bella says, poking her head around the corner.
I sit up straighter as Lainey rounds the corner, arms laden with wine and a soft smile on her flawless face.
“Hey, babydoll,” she says as she places everything on the table before taking a seat beside me and pulling me into her.
She rubs her hands up and down my arms in a gesture reserved specially for a mother. “How’re you doin’?”
“I’m okay.”
She eyes me sceptically. “You wanna talk about it?”
I shake my head. “No. I really don’t.”
“Okay,” she says just as Bella returns with ice cream and three wine glasses.
“I hope you don’t mind, but I called Savannah. She’s on her way over.”
I smile at her. “Of course I don’t mind.”
Twenty minutes later, all four of us are splayed out across the two couches, each of us with a tub of ice cream in hand. A comedy plays on the TV, but I’m not paying attention as my mind runs wild with all the things I still need to say.
The girls’ laugh. Lainey sips her wine. Bella and Savannah discuss something that’s just happened on the screen, but all I can see is the look on Killian’s face when I told him the truth.
All I hear is the sound of his distraught cries as he lashed out in his bedroom.
And all I can feel is the unsteady rhythm of my broken heart as it beats in my chest, serving as a reminderof everything I’ve lost.
CHAPTER 38
KILLIAN
Ilift theBud lightto my lips and take a healthy slug as I stare down at the picture in my hand.
The same picture I’ve carried in my wallet since the day it was taken.
Daisy’s face is alight with a laugh, her hair spilling to the floor as I dip her back into a kiss. My hand clutches her bare leg around my waist, my own smile just as wide as my mouth descends on hers.
I rub at the tender spot on my chest.
Fuck, where did it all go wrong?
