He stops. Swallow hard. His whole body is rigid with fear I can feel radiating off him.
"What if I fail you the way I failed him?"
"You won't." The words come immediately, certain. "I know you won't."
"You don't know that." He shakes his head, and I see the fear etched into every line of his face. "I can't guarantee it. Can't promise I won't freeze when it matters most."
"Brooks, you're not—"
"I need to think." He starts the engine, the rumble filling the cab. His walls are slamming back into place, and I can see him retreating behind them. "Need to process this."
"Wait—"
"Not now, Elorie." His jaw sets, his eyes forward. Hands gripping the wheel again. "I just need some time."
The drive to my apartment passes in charged silence. His hand doesn't return to my thigh the way it usually does. The space between us feels like miles instead of inches. The town blurs past my window, but I can't focus on anything except the rigid set of his shoulders and the way he won't look at me.
He just told me his deepest wound, and now he's running from it. From me.
When he pulls up outside my building, the engine idles. I don't move.
"Come inside. We can talk about this."
"Not today."
"Brooks—"
"I just need some time to figure out what this means." He turns to me finally, and his hand cups my face with the gentleness that was missing from his grip earlier. "I'm not running. I just need to think."
He kisses my forehead, tender where earlier kisses were claiming. "I'll call you tomorrow."
I nod, even though everything in me wants to fight, wants to grab his face and make him see that I'm not scared of his broken pieces. That I'm not leaving.
But I get out. I watch him drive away. And I stand in the cold, wondering if telling me about Marcus just gave him the excuse he needed to push me away. His truck disappears around the corner, and something hot and fierce builds in my chest.
Not sadness. Not confusion.
Anger.
He doesn't get to tell me his deepest wound and then run from my reaction. Doesn't get to decide for both of us that his broken pieces make him unlovable. Doesn't get to kiss my forehead like a goodbye and expect me to just accept it.
I stood in a storm and chose him. Slept in his bed and trusted him with my safety. And now I realize I’ve fallen for him, knowing he was still healing from something that broke him all those years ago.
He doesn't get to take that choice away from me now.
Tomorrow, I’ll reach out, even go to his cabin if I need to. And if I do, I'm not leaving until he hears me.
Chapter six
Brooks
My phone lights up the dark cab for the third time, her name glowing against the dashboard.
Elorie: I don't know what's wrong, but I'm here when you're ready to talk. Please don’t shut me out.
Her words sit heavy in my chest.Please don't shut me out.That's exactly what I'm doing. Even after she showed me her wounds from Denver. Even after she trusted me with her softness. Even after everything we've built in the last few days, I'm choosing fear over her. And she's still here. Still fighting. Still refusing to let me sink.
And I'm throwing it away because I'm too afraid to fight for it.
