But they just aren’t.
The ones I need wouldn’t have turned their back on me for my truth.
They wouldn’t dismiss my feelings and make me choose.
“I think it’d be best if you leave now,” Tally snaps again.
I don’t deserve her.
“Think about what we had, what we shared.” Nash’s ocean blue eyes are begging me to listen, still not willing to give up. He can’t see that he’s making things worse.
“What we shared means nothing. It just made you hurt me more,” I confess, biting my lip.
Why did I just admit that they hurt me?
Fuck it, they know.They knew I fell for them and cut me off anyway.
But me still loving them won’t help them get me back. If anything, it makes me hate them more for being unable to get rid of my feelings.
Maybe they see the stubborn tension in my jaw. Or maybe it’s Mac and Tim who come up to stand beside me now, but North visibly deflates. Nash still seems stubborn, reaching out to grab me. “Read my texts,” he pleads, making my hackles rise even more.
I try to pull my arm back, but he grabs my wrist, making my pulse race faster, and I start to panic. “Don’t touch me.”
“Siren…” He steps closer before he’s forced to let go because he’s pushed backward.
Losing his balance from the shove, Nash falls to his knees. There, on the floor he looks up at me, the desperation clear in his eyes. "Please, forgive me," he begs, his voice breaking, showing his vulnerability in a way I've never seen before.
Seeing Nash fly backward, I would have thought Mac got between us, but it’s Tim who takes a step in front of me now, arms crossed, facing off his best friend for me.
Choosing my side.
I can’t even start to process how that makes me feel.
“She said you shouldn’t touch her,” Tim seethes.
Mac steps up next to Tim, cracking his knuckles. Tally steps in line with those two, and now all three of them are standing in front of me, building a wall between two of the men who crushed my heart and me. Tears are finally brimming in my eyes. Luckily, I’m so shielded that they can’t see the teardrop that runs down my cheek for the fact the guys are here, begging me for something I wantsobadly but can’t give them anymore. And at the fact that I have friends.
Friendswhocare enough to step up for me.
“You’re banned from my restaurant for trespassing. I told you to leave twice, and you wouldn’t, continuing to harass my employee. Next time you put a foot in here, I’ll call the police on you,” Tally announces, her voice stern. “That counts for all the Jones.”
My breath hitches.
She did not.
North lets out a defeated laugh. “We’re your best damn customers, Tallulah.”
“And she’s my best damn friend. Fuck off, Satan, and take your brother with you.”
Then the dam breaks, and my tears fall freely.
The tasteof defeat lingers heavily as I step out of the restaurant, Nash trailing behind me. The door slams shut, and the two of us slump into the BMW, still reeling from the fuckup that was that apology.
We didn’t think. We just acted when we saw the van in the parking lot while driving home after another grueling day of searching for her, leaving us exhausted and on edge.
I need to get back to work tomorrow, but we wanted to try one more time, checking out the last part of the area we hadn’t already, making sure she wasn’t stranded somewhere in need of help because that monstrosity of a van gave out under her.
I grimace when I look over at it, parked in the same spot as before she left, mocking me. All the guilt is slowly killing me, and in the end, that goddamn rusty pile of shit will outlive me. Sloan just put another heap of guilt on top of the one already crushing me with her accusations about Lio.
