I stop breathing for a second, eyes locked on his. “Don’t you dare say it,” I hiss after a few seconds. “I can’t hear that right now.”
His expression is contrite. “Doesn’t make it not true.” He removes his hands from my face, propping his elbows on his knees, and resting his chin in his hands. “I told you I’m fucked up.”
“Don’t turn this into a pity party, because you’re stronger than that.”
“Am I?” he turns toward me. “It feels like I’m running on empty these past few weeks.”
My anger dissipates again. “There is only one truth I know that matters anymore.”
He stares at me with an intense lens, waiting for me to elaborate.
“We’ve got to stick together. We’ve got to trust in each other and believe that together we can make this all right, because otherwise we’re doomed to lead lives we don’t want.” Fierce determination surges through me. “And I fucking refuse to accept that’s my destiny.”
CHAPTER 27
Harlow
“NO! PLEASE NO!”Galen thrashes about in the bed, crying out in his sleep, rousing me from my own troubled slumber. “You’re not dead! You’re not dead!” he whimpers, and that ache is back in my chest.
“Shush, babe.” I sit up, resting my back against the headboard as I reach out for him. The second my hands land on his back, he scoots forward, snuggling into me with his head in my lap. “It’s okay. I’m here. Go back to sleep,” I murmur.
His arm wraps around my thighs, and he whimpers again. My fingers thread through his hair and I lean down, dotting kisses on his cheek. I continue stroking his hair as I lean my head back and close my eyes.
It’s been an exhausting day, which seems to be the pattern of my life now.
When Galen asked me to stay here tonight, so he could keep a close eye on his mother, I wanted to tell him no. To explain I wanted to run a million miles from him and his horrid mother and this house full of terrible memories.
And that’s precisely why I stayed.
There is no point coming here, moving into this in-between space with Galen and then running off half-assed before it’s resolved. Best to confront it all head on.
I open my eyes as a slight breeze enters the room. I shiver and Galen’s arm clutches my thigh harder as he cuddles into me. I smile as I run my fingers over his hair, watching, as his murmurs fade and his breathing evens out, until he’s in a deep sleep. I’m happy one of us is. His long lashes fan out over his cheekbones, and air whooshes out of his gorgeous mouth in gentle puffs, and I could stare at him all night.
What a complex, broken soul he is. And so tortured. I’m happy I stayed now because this is what we both need. We didn’t have sex, and I doubt it was on his mind either. He seemed content to go to sleep wrapped around me, and it didn’t feel weird.
It felt right.
I lean down and press a kiss to his head.
I can’t hold on to my anger because Galen doesn’t deserve it. I’m going to offer him my forgiveness because it’s right and it’s what I feel in my heart.
It’s not pity.
It’s compassion.
He has been through so much, and even though he was misguided and so cruel to blame me for something I knew nothing about, and had no control over, he was so broken at the time, grieving his sister and drowning in responsibility.
And I get how afraid he was of me messing up the crew dynamic. The guys are all he has. When I waltzed into their lives, I shook everything up, bringing it all back to the present. Take that, and all this shit he’s going through with his mom, and Dar preying on his vulnerability at the perfect moment, and I see how it happened.
The brain can’t cope when it’s overloaded, and it’s exactly those moments when we make poor decisions.
At least, I understand it all now.
Movement at the door captures my attention, and I look up into Alisha Lennox’s pale-green eyes. I wonder how long she’s been standing there watching us. From the tears clinging to her lashes, I’d say it’s been a while.
“Stay, sweetheart,” she whispers when I move to lift Galen’s head from my lap. “Look after my boy.” She closes the door, careful not to make a sound.
I don’t want to leave Galen, but he’s sound asleep now, and I hope he won’t wake again, because I can’t waste this opportunity. I may not get another one where Alisha seems clearheaded, and I fucking want answers. Answers her son can’t give.
