Five words that had me flying off my seat and my blood boiling as a million emotions slammed into me at once.
“What the fuck?” I yelled, causing heads to turn in our direction.
“Since I never promised, I offered to be the messenger.” Gyth’s neck muscles bulged as if he might pop a blood vessel—maybe even two or three. “We’re working on it but thought you should know.”
I looked back at Lyric. “And why couldn’t you tell me?”
“Patience made me and Ruby promise not to.”
He had to be kidding. We told each other everything. “And why would she do that?”
“Because she didn’t want to worry you when you were already going through so much,” he responded.
I realized then that we had told each other everything, but since I’d stopped talking to her, maybe she didn’t think she could come to me anymore.
She was trying to protect me.
But I was doing a shit job of protecting her.
I’d royally fucked up.
I might not be able to have the relationship I longed for with her, but that didn’t mean I should have stopped listening and being there for my best friend.
Fuck, guilt was an evil bitch.
“We have to get going, we have a plane to catch.” Lyricextended his hand to shake mine, but once he released it, he clamped his palm on my shoulder and pulled me in for a man-hug. “You take care of yourself, brother.”
When he pulled back, Gyth took his turn, doing the same.
They swooped in, dropped a bomb, and then just wanted to walk away?
As they went to leave, I let them get about ten steps too many before I tossed money on the bar and called out, “I’m coming with you.”
They turned back to me, and with a glint in his eye, Gyth yelled over the noise in the room, “It’s a damn good thing we bought you a ticket then!”
When Lyric slapped some money into Gyth’s palm and grumbled loudly about how he hated to fucking lose, I managed to look appalled as I approached them.
“What were you assholes betting on?”
“How many steps it would take before you caved,” Lyric said. “I thought, as stubborn as you are, that you might just let us get out the door before you came running. You cost me twenty bucks.”
“Fuckers,” I mumbled.
They both chuckled. “Good thing Embry’s not here tonight. She’d have made a killing off that mouth of yours,” Gyth told me.
I thought back to my earlier conversation with Dusty. I’d given her shit about her potty mouth, and there I was, worse than her.
Gyth was right, though; I’d have owed her a load of money.
Lyric smacked me on the shoulder. “Let’s get out of here.”
When they started for the door again, I followed.
Looks like I was going home.
I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.
Pacing back and forth in the kitchen of one of theNo Surrendercondos, I scrubbed my hands down my face, bone-deep fatigue sinking into my whole body.
