His lips twitched. “Liar.”
“I’m not a liar.”
“Yeah, you are. You like the noise because your home is too quiet.”
It was true. Usually, she did find her house too quiet, something only he knew. Exactly why the second she’d turned sixteen and gotten her driver’s license, she’d spent so many nights driving to his place and spending her evenings with him. His family was big and loud and fun…and he was there.
“Fine, I like being out of the house. But I don’t like this party.”
“Me neither. Fuck, I can’t wait to get out of this town.”
His words cut into her flesh. Was this the last party they’d attend together? They were about to graduate high school, and he’d already been accepted into the Air Force. She wouldn’t see him every day anymore. She wouldn’t hear his voice or be able to sneak into his room when her aunt became too much.
It shouldn’t affect her the way it did. She shouldn’tneedhim the way she did. She’d always known he’d leave. He was the youngest of six siblings, four of them brothers, and all the older boys had already left for the military. It was always going to happen.
The letter she’d written for him burned a hole in her pocket. She’d had it with her every day for the last month, never knowing the right time to give it to him.
Was it now?
“Is it really so bad here?” she asked quietly.
Jace Walker letthe question sit in the air for a moment. It should be a simple one, right? Was life here in Misty Peak so bad?
If anyone else had asked, he’d make a joke so they didn’t see the complex layers beneath his surface. The ones he tried to keep hidden.
“It’s not that it’s bad…just that there’s this thing inside me that needs to get out. To make something of myself like my brothers have.” He’d never said those words out loud before, but fuck, they were true.
At Elle’s silence, he looked at her to see the small pinch in her brow. She was so damn cute when she did that. It meant she was thinking. Pulling little pieces of him together in her head to figure him out in a way no one else did.
“This isn’t about Lawson, is it?” she asked.
The thought of his former best friend felt like a dagger to his chest. It took every ounce of strength to not hunch over and let the heaviness of that name suffocate him.
“Because his death wasn’t your fault,” she whispered.
She’d whispered those words to him so many times, he almost believed them…almost. “I wanted to go out that night. And he paid the price for that.”
Elle gripped his arm, and he had no choice but to turn to her. To let the gray shades of her eyes sear into him like they always did. “A drunk driver ran a red light. Lawson’s death isnoton you.”
Then why did the weight of his death feel so heavy? Why did every breath feel like a battle? Every second feel like he was fighting an enemy he couldn’t see?
“You couldn’t have saved him,” she said softly.
Her voice slipped inside him, making the part of him that had hurt for so long almost feel normal. For a moment, he ached to touch her. To let himself buy into the idea that had toyed with his mind for so long…that he could have her. That they could have each other.
But they couldn’t. Because he needed to get out of here. Away from the memory of his friend’s death. His mother’s death. He needed to becomemore.
He clenched his fists, forcing his usual half grin to his face. “You gonna be okay without me, Tink?”
There was a flash of disappointment in her eyes. She hated when he defaulted to humor, but it was what he did. “Of course, because we’ll stay friends, right?”
“Yeah, we’ll stay friends. You can’t get rid of me that easily.”
“Promise me.”
His brows flickered—and for some reason, he didn’t want to. He didn’t know what his life was going to be like once he left Misty Peak. But her eyes…fuck, those perfect grays…they bore into him, and he couldn’t say no.
“I promise, Tink.”
