She pushes me away with both arms, and caught off guard, I stagger back, watching as the side door rolls to a shut, my favorite eyes in the world cut off from view.
I hear footsteps in the van and then it turns on, the engine rolling over and right now I wish I hadn’t fixed that fucking motor so she can’t pull away from me.
But I did, and the independent woman I’m in love with drives out of the lot, leaving my shattered heart behind.
Sittingin my brother’s kitchen, he hands me a glass of bourbon and I down it without registering it hitting my tongue.
“Another,” he says, pouring me a fresh glass, and I do the same.
After the third, he sits down across from me.
“I’m sorry, man,” he says, and he sounds it.
I grunt.
He tries again. “She’ll be back.”
“You can’t know that.”
Wyatt looks around his house, the signs of his wife tucked into every nook, and raises his eyebrows at me pointedly.
“That was different.”
“Love is love, West. Ours was real, and so is yours. Our stories might look different, but we’re both getting our happy endings, man.”
I shake my head. “I can’t believe you just said that.”
He chuckles. “Yeah, you tell anyone, I’ll deny it.”
I let out a pathetic wail. “I want to go after her but I think that’s just gonna make it worse. How did you live through ten years of this?”
He clears his throat. “It was twelve. And she’s not going to be gone that long.”
“How do you know?”
“The girls are on it. Plus, if she’s not back soon you’ll go after her before it gets out of hand. You won’t fuck it up like I did.”
I drop my head in my hands, picturing a future where I’m as miserable of a prick as my brother was for all those years. If I had to be without the love of my life, after knowing what it’s like to have her, I would be an asshole too.
Suddenly, I’m judging him a lot fucking less.
Like he can read my thoughts, or maybe we’re just more similar than either of us have ever cared to admit, he speaks up again. “I know you said you wanted to be me, but you don’t wanna be me, West. You’re so much better than I ever was, brother. You found what you want, and you’re fighting for it.You’re not letting it go.” He clears his throat, but his voice is still thick when he speaks again. “I wish I was more like you, man. Back then and now.”
“Yeah, well, you’re not so bad,” I tell him, lifting my head and sniffing. “And if I lose Amelia, I’ll be back to being the black sheep of the family anyway.”
He flips me off, taking a sip of his bourbon before opening his mouth again. “Not gonna happen, little bro. I should’ve known from the first night she arrived, when you called me for help. You’ve never done that in your life. I should’ve known then this was different. I shouldn’t have expected the worst from you. I know you would never have asked me for help with her, especially not so many times, if it wasn’t for real. Sorry for being a prick about it.”
I shrug, sighing. “Thanks for coming today.”
“What are brothers for? Least I could do.”
He clears his throat again, and pulls something from his back pocket, slapping it down on the carved wooden table between us.
“What’s that?”
“Too lazy to look and find out?”
Grumbling, I swipe it off the table and open it up.
