“Sorry,” I giggle. “Do you want me to…”
“No,” he says with force. “This morning isn’t about me.” He slowly removes his fingers still inside me and sighs before releasing his death grip on me. “I need to get going. I’ve got practice soon.” Rolling away from me, he gets out of bed as I quickly turn over so I can see him.
Pulling his pants on, he leaves them unbuckled as he grabs his shoes and the rest of his clothes. He won’t make eye contact with me, and acts like he can’t get out of here fast enough.
“Did I do something wrong?” I ask, confused, as I sit up in bed.
“No, Savi. You didn’t do something wrong,” he says, clearly frustrated as he rakes a hand aggressively through his hair before looking at the ceiling. “That’s the whole fucking problem. You do everything right.”
“I don’t understand,” I frown.
His eyes finally meet mine, and the pain and turmoil in them have me blinking back tears. “I thought I could handle this, that I could detach myself from you, but I don’t think I can,” he says quietly. “I’m sorry, but I can’t be who you need me to be.” He walks toward the door and leaves without a backward glance.
Lost in confusion and hurt, I curl up in a ball and silently start to cry—for what I’m not entirely sure, but a deep sadness has taken over what was once a morning I will hold on to forever.
I cry for the part of me that he healed today.
I cry that it was ever broken in the first place.
I cry for the guilt and pain I feel for him having to share this burden with me.
But mostly…
I cry for the man who has his own monsters and feels he has to carry it alone.
“You have to go!We got season tickets this year, and it’s the first game of the season!” Olivia’s hazel eyes are bright with determination.
It’s been four days since that morning, waking up in his arms, and he’s been avoiding me ever since. I lie awake in bed at night listening for the sound of his car pulling up, and when I do finally hear it, he goes straight to his apartment out back. I watch his light come on and get glimpses of his shadow as he passes by his window, willing him to come inside and hold me again like he did that night, but he never comes.
“I’m pretty sure Knox doesn’t want me there. I’ll just watch from home,” I say quickly, hoping to change the subject even though I know it’s useless.
“Oh hell no,” Sophia says, taking a sip of her mimosa. “You’re going. Trav and I drove an hour to get here and have no kids tonight. We’ve been looking forward to this night with everyone for weeks, and that includes you.” Her green eyes shoot me a look that says it’s not up for discussion.
I narrow my eyes at the raven-haired beauty. When Travis told me he had fallen in love with Max’s kindergarten teacher, I expected a sweet little innocent thing, not the sassy spitfire woman looking at me now like I’m one of her students who better do as they are told.
Don’t get me wrong, she’s as sweet as they come, too, and I couldn’t love her more, especially when I saw how much she loved my nephew, Max. They developed a very strong bond, and when her and Travis got married, she didn’t hesitate to adopt him as her own.
“I agree,” Eve says, clinking her glass to Sophia’s in approval as I shift my eyes to my other sister-in-law. “It’s a miracle in itself that we all got babysitters tonight. Plus, we are all going out afterwards. It won’t be the same without you.”
I’ve known Eve the longest. She started dating my brother, Ryder, while they were in high school, and it was clear they were going to get married one day. She became like a sister to me.
Her parents, though, had other ideas and went to great lengths to pull her and Ryder apart, and for a while it worked. Thank God, they found their way back to each other because I don’t think either of them would have survived this life without the other.
“Knox would want you there even though his stubborn ass won’t admit it. Who knows, you could be his good luck charm, and this could be his best game yet,” Lyla grins across the table at me.
I meet Lyla’s light caramel eyes, and can’t help but soften a little. I have a soft spot for my sweet Lyla. She’s the strongest person I know, and I’ve come so close to telling her about what happened to me because she’s the one who can relate the most. She lived in hell for five years until she found the courage to run away. The moment my brother Jake saw her, he fell hard, giving her his love and willing to do anything to protect her.Her happiness after so much pain in her life gives me hope and something to cling to when the days are hard.
All four of them are the most amazing women I’ve met, and I’m so happy my brothers found them.
“I highly doubt that,” I chuckle. “Fine. I’ll go,” I say, throwing up my arms in defeat as they all break out into smiles, knowing they won. It’s not like I could say no to these girls when they set their mind to something, anyway…and that something is getting Knox to admit he has feelings for me or getting me under him, whichever comes first.
After my lunch with Olivia, it didn’t take long before Lyla, Sophia, and Eve knew about our little discussion. Girl talk with us is twenty-four seven, so it was bound to come out, anyway. They all promised to keep my brothers out of it to give me time to figure out what this is between us before they get their protective asses involved.
What shocked me, though, was the fact that none of them were surprised in the slightest when I told them there was an attraction there.
When they found out he was living with me, apparently, they had already made a little side bet on how long it would take before Knox and I would end up in bed together.
I decided not to tell them about our morning together. It feels too private, and I’m still trying to process everything that’s happening between us. Girl talk is fun, but some things need to be just between Knox and me. There are layers so deep that even I don’t know the depth of them or what lies beneath.
