“I don’t know if there’s room for you in it anymore.”
The words hang in the air. Griffin’s breath catches, but he doesn’t argue. He doesn’t plead. He just stands there, accepting whatever verdict I deliver.
“I understand,” he says finally. “I’m not asking you to forgive me overnight. I’m just asking for a chance. A real chance, with all the truth between us.”
I don’t answer because I can’t.
I gather the letters, put them back in the box, and walk out of his house without looking back. He didn’t leave because he stopped loving me. He left because he loved me too much.
And I have no idea if that makes it better or worse.
CHAPTER 12
GRIFFIN
She’s goneand I’m falling apart.
There’s a special kind of cruelty in having everything you want dangled so close and then ripped away. It’s been days since Jess walked out of my house with the box of letters I should have given her years ago. Days of silence, of staring at my phone and willing it to buzz with her name.
It doesn’t.
I’ve texted her twice. But the messages I get in response are professional. They’re kind, clinical, and impersonal. I fucking hate it. They are everything we used to be before the hurricane changed us back intous.
The last text she sent me says that Dr. Thompson will be covering my appointments for the next week. I can only assume she’s handing me off to someone else because she can’t stand to be in the same room as me. I don’t know how I’ve managed to mess this up twice, but here we are.
I pace my living room like a caged animal. My knee aches, but the pain barely registers. Physical pain is nothing compared to this. This is a hollow, gnawing emptiness that lives where my heart used to be.
I had her. For one perfect week, I had her back. Her laugh, her touch, and the way she said my name in the dark. It made me whole for the first time in years. And I destroyed it. Again.
My phone buzzes and I jump. Please let it be her.
It is.Dammit Landon.
Landon:Get your ass to my place. Now.
Me:Fuck off.
I don’t want to go anywhere. I want to sit here and marinate in my own misery until I dissolve into the couch cushions.
Landon:You leave your house or I’m coming in. You're not going to do this and forget everything you’ve been working toward.
I roll my eyes. This dude is so dramatic. Having him here will be a nightmare. At least if I go to his house I can leave when I want to.
Landon:You’re not leaving me with some practice team quarter back.
Landon:I’m coming over.
Me:Fine, I’m on my way.
Landon’s apartment is chaos, as usual. There is sports memorabilia everywhere, dishes in the sink, and a half-eaten pizza on the counter that looks at least two days old. All the money in the world couldn’t buy Landon good taste.
He opens the door. “Nice to finally see you. You look like shit.”
“Thanks.” I step inside and close the door behind me.
“Sit. Have a drink.” He shoves a beer into my hand and drops onto the couch across from me. “You went full ghost on me. One minute I thought you and the doc were making things official again and then you disappear. Are you going to tell me what the hell happened?”
“Yeah, I fucked it up. Again…” Once I start, the words spill out of me. I tell him. All of it. We start with the letters and endwith the look on Jess’s face when she realized I’d kept the truth from her even while she was falling back in love with me.
