Everyone starts talking, trying to figure out the best way to get me home, but keep me comfortable at the same time.
Seeing them rally around me, trying to problem solve and make sure that I’m okay, warms my heart.
They aren’t running in the other direction, they aren’t looking at me like a freak with three heads, and they aren’t getting pissed off because this fear of mine is an inconvenience.
“What can we do to make this a little easier?” Davis asks, wrapping an arm around my shoulder and pulling me into his chest.
He’s warm.
“I think you guys already have… but I might have an idea.”
twenty-one
DAVIS
“Do me a favour?” Lucas asks, staring at the girls. They have their arms wrapped tightly around Sasha, holding her a step away from my car.
“What’s that?” I grind out.
He put her in that situation, he forced her into that car…
But I’m sure he’s already beating himself up for that.
He became his worst nightmare.
Lucas watched his father beat his mother. He’s heard stories about Claire’s childhood, he’s seen the effects that actions like his can have on people… and he knew about Sasha’s fear of cars.
He was the one who helpedmerealize.
“If I ever do something like that again, break my fucking jaw.”
His voice is full of torture.
I spare him a glance, but I don’t see the guy I’ve lived with for three years, or the captain who leads us on the ice.No, I see a boy who is so ashamed of what he’s done, how’s letting it tear him apart.
“That, I can do.”
If he ever puts his hands on Sasha like that again…
He clamps a hand on my shoulder, tears welling in his eyes. “I don’t know why I did it, man, I wasn’t thinking straight.”
I take a tight breath. “If she forgives you… then I’ll forgive you.”
There’s not much more I can say than that. This isn’t my place to be angry with him, it’s hers. Although it won’t stop me from harbouring a little resentment. He had no right to do that to her, he had no right to hurt her like that, even if his judgment was clouded by what he thought was going to hurt Claire.
I can’t believe she knew. Sasha trusted Claire before she trusted me.
“She’s a great girl, I really do like her, I just couldn’t handle the thought that she might have played a part in what happened to Claire that night… I see how stupid that is now. She wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“You’re right,” I tell him, “she wouldn’t.”
For the first time in the entirety of our friendship, I have my doubts about Lucas St. James. This is twice now that he’s made an assumption and it be completely off the mark, he’s made two mistakes that could have really hurt people. Usually he’s so good at getting a read on people, seeing things that other people can’t see… so I wonder what’s different about them —about me.
Lucky for him, those mistakes were made with the only people in this world who would forgive him.
“Are you two coming or what?” Blair sticks his head out the window of August’s truck.
The girls take a step back from Sasha, smiling encouragingly as I walk up to my car. “You ready for this, Pixie?”
