Isaac flips me off as he gets into his car, revving the engine.With one last look at us, he spits a mouthful of blood onto the side of the road before saying, “Every time you fuck her, remember that was me once.”Then he speeds off, not giving me a chance to respond.
“Fucking hell,” I groan, shaking my hand before flexing it.
Behind me, Nate chuckles.“How much does that hurt?”he asks, tipping his head toward my hand.
I huff out a laugh.“A lot,” I admit.
“Come on, Rocky,” he says, hooking an arm around my shoulders, something he never would have done in the past.“Let’s go put some ice on it.”
We walk back to The Pipe Dream, heading around the back and up the stairs to the apartment he shares with Sage.When we walk inside, we see Sage and Daisy sitting outside on the balcony, laughing as Daisy writes something down.
Nate throws up a hand in a wave to Sage but steers me toward the kitchen.Opening the freezer section, he pulls out a bag of peas and throws it to me.
“Here, put this on it.You want some drugs?”
“Nah, I’m good, thanks,” I say, holding the bag against my knuckles.“Could do with a beer though.”
Nate laughs.“Course,” he replies as he pulls out one for each of us.
I take a long gulp just as Daisy walks into the kitchen, her eyes widening when she sees the bag of frozen peas on my hand.“What happened?”she asks, her gaze lifting to mine.
I shrug.“Something that should’ve happened a long time ago.”
Daisy turns to Nate, who grins and says, “Nailed Isaac.Twice.”
Her jaw drops as she turns back to me and asks, “You punched him?”
“Yep,” I reply with a nod.
“I...I mean...”She stops, reaching for the bag of peas.She lifts it to inspect my hand.
It’s not actually that bad this time.Certainly not as bad as it was when I first heard about her and Isaac a year ago.That time, I didn’t punch someone’s jaw.I punched the wall, breaking a bone in my hand in the process.Kind of fucked me playing guitar with the band for a while, but I just played through the pain, using increasing amounts of alcohol to cope with it.
“It’s all good, babe,” I say, dropping a kiss on the top of her head.“It was just something we needed to do.”
She looks up at me, her eyes wet with tears.“Did he hit you?”
I scoff out a laugh.“Nah, course not,” I tell her, and beside me, Nate laughs.
“Dude didn’t even see it coming when Miles hit him,” he says.“Both times.”
Daisy lets out a sigh as she wraps her arms around my waist, her head resting on my chest.“This is all my fault,” she groans.
I wrap my arms around her, pulling her close.“Babe, it’s not,” I say, pressing a kiss to her temple.“Isaac and I have a lot of bad shit between us.Long before...you know,” I add, knowing that Isaac effectively blamed me for him getting kicked out of the band, especially when he found out I was both lead guitar and lead singer.
It’s why I know him going after Daze was an intentional fuck you to me.He was livid when we told him he was out, and going after my girl when I left was his revenge.It had never crossed my mind at the time because I thought Daisy and I were solid.
But when she mentioned the other night that whole thing with her dad leaving when she was younger, everything finally clicked into place.And it made my leaving that much worse.I should’ve thought about what me going to the mainland was going to do to her.Should’ve realized what a fucking trigger it was going to be.
“It’s okay, Daze,” I say, squeezing my arms around her.“Come on, let’s go home.”
After we say goodbye to Nate and Sage, we head back to my place, stopping to get some takeout on the way.
Inside, I grab us a couple of beers before we head out to the deck to eat.
“How’s your hand?”Daisy asks, her gaze dropping to my bruised knuckles.
I lift it to her face, brushing my thumb across her cheek as I say, “It’s all good, babe, I promise.”She exhales a hard sigh, and I can tell she’s still blaming herself for all of this.“Daisy,” I say, waiting until she looks at me.“This isn’t on you.”
