“Maybe not, but the results are kind of the same.” I shoved my face in his neck andcontinued to sob. “I should have fought for you.”
“Okay, honey, let’s not spiral just yet, hm?” He stroked my back. “I appreciate you’re looking inside yourself and taking some responsibility, but the truth of the matter is, we both could have done things differently, but the onus is on me. Neither of us had a whole lot of tools back then, but I was the one who fuckin’ left you. I should have stayed and worked it out.”
“I just missed you so much.”
“I know. I missed you, too.”
“You really didn’t shack up with anyone else while you were gone?”
“Didn’t even kiss another girl, honey,” he said.
I sat up and frowned. “Boy?”
He snorted. “Don’t swing that way, and you know it.”
“Well, I kind of went out on a few dates, but none of them were you, so they went home unsatisfied.”
“Not really any of my business.”
“Flea didn’t fill you in?”
“No, baby, he didn’t.” He wiped the tears from my cheeks and smiled gently. “Outside of letting me know you didn’t have a man, he didn’t go into details.”
“I don’t think I’ll be able to eat until you tell me everything.” I bit my lip. “Are you starving?”
“The food’ll keep, honey. As will my stomach.”
“I still want my wine.”
He chuckled, letting me up so he could get our drinks, then he insisted on sitting us back down in the same position again before beginning his story.
* * *
Rooster
“When everything went down with Tillie, it was the straw,” I said. “I couldn’t believe I’d let a little girl fool me, you know? She’d said she’d left her math book at her friend’s house, and she had a test the next day.” I sighed. “I was just going to run and grab it for her. She was right next door. The alarm was set, she was good. But she’d lied, obviously, and snuck out. Brick grabbed her the second she got past the camera.”
“I love Tillie, she’s one of my favorite humans, but let’s be honest, she’s always been sneaky,” Katie said. “There was an incident not long ago with Teagan and fake IDs that Tillie had set up. Hatch and Mack nearly lost their minds.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Jesus, can’t wait to hear that one.”
“Later,” she promised, taking a sip of her wine.
“It wasn’t just the Tillie shit. It was Dad, it was my obligations to Hatch, to the club, to you. I felt like my skin was peeling off because of thestress of me fuckin’ up. I felt like I couldn’t do anything right, and if I couldn’t figure it out, I’d never be good enough for you.”
“I just wanted you to love me.”
“Fuck, baby, I did,” I said. “I do. With everything I have. But you deserved more.”
“You were perfect just the way you were, Kam. I loved you just the way you were. I didn’t need you to be someone you’d made up in your head.”
“Maybe not, but I needed to go, and now that your mom’s sick, I needed to come back.”
Katie gasped, her eyes filling with tears.
* * *
Katie
