"It looks like you decided I was too weak to handle the truth, so you made the choice for me. You let me spend two years thinking I was the problem instead of trusting me enough to let me decide how to handle it."
Beau's jaw tightens, and I can see that careful control he always wears starting to crack like old leather.
"You were in love with her, Colt. Head over heels, completely gone. If I'd told you what I heard..."
"You should have told me anyway!" The words explode out of Colt, loud enough to make me jump. "You should have trusted me enough to let me make my own choices about how to deal with it!"
"I was trying to protect you!"
"By sacrificing our friendship? By letting me hate you for two years because you thought I couldn't handle the truth?" Colt takes a step closer to Beau, and I tense, ready to throw myself between them despite Gabriel's grip on my arm.
"Do you have any idea what that cost? What it cost both of us?"
Something in Beau's expression crumbles, that mask of control slipping to reveal the guilt and pain he's been carrying like stones in his pockets.
"I was trying to do the right thing."
"The right thing would have been trusting me. The right thing would have been telling me the truth and letting me decide what to do with it."
The silence that stretches between them is thick, loaded with two years' worth of hurt and misunderstanding and love that never really died despite everything they did to try to kill it.
I watch Colt's face change as the full weight of what Beau did finally sinks in, as he realizes that his best friend destroyed their relationship not out of selfishness or cowardice, but out of some misguided attempt to protect him from pain.
"You idiotic, self-sacrificing son of a bitch," Colt says quietly, and there's something broken in his voice that makes my chest ache. "You threw away the best friendship either of us ever had."
Beau flinches like Colt's words hit harder than his fist.
For a heartbeat, I think Colt's going to hit him again.
His whole body coils like a spring, and Beau braces himself for another blow, resignation written across his face like he thinks he deserves whatever punishment Colt wants to dish out.
Instead, Colt launches himself forward and wraps his arms around Beau in a hug so fierce it drives them both backward against the reception desk.
The emotional whiplash leaves me breathless. One second they're on the verge of tearing each other apart, and the next they're clinging to each other like drowning men who've finally found something solid to hold onto.
Beau's arms come up to circle Colt's shoulders, and I can see the way his hands shake as he holds on.
"You stubborn bastard," Colt mutters against Beau's shoulder, his voice thick with emotion he's trying not to show. "Next time you decide to make a sacrifice for my own good… Don’t!."
"There won't be a next time," Beau promises, his voice rough as gravel. "I'm done keeping secrets from you."
"Good. Because I missed you, you son of a bitch. I missed my brother."
The word 'brother' breaks something loose in my chest, and before I can stop myself, tears are streaming down my face. Brothers. That's what they are, what they've always been, and watching them find their way back to each other is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
Beside me, Gabriel clears his throat roughly, and when I glance at him, I catch him wiping at his eyes.
Finally, after what feels like forever, Colt and Beau pull apart. Both of them are trying to look casual, like theyweren't just having the most emotional moment of their adult lives in the middle of a veterinary clinic.
Colt rubs the back of his neck, refusing to meet anyone's eyes, while Beau examines his split lip again like it's the most fascinating thing in Montana.
"Well," Colt says eventually, his voice carefully light, "that was fun. Nothing like a little violence to clear the air."
"You punch like a damn mule, Mercer," Beau says, touching his jaw gingerly. "Remind me not to get on your bad side again."
"You've always been better at taking the hard hits," Colt replies, and there's affection under the teasing. "Part of your charm."
The easy banter between them is so natural, so right, that it's hard to believe they spent two years barely speaking to each other. This is what they were like before, I realize. This is the friendship that got destroyed by secrets and misplaced good intentions and hearts too big for their own good.
