“I told him to fuck off. He grabbed my wrist when I tried to walk past him, and I—” I glance down at the red marks circling my arm. I used to take care to hide them with long sleeves or turtlenecks. I’m so sick of hiding. “I kneed him in the balls.” I shrug. “Then I kneed him in the face.”
“Good.” Piper’s voice is uncharacteristically quiet.
“He deserves worse,” Sadie adds, squeezing my hand.
“No offense,” Iris says, taking a sip of wine, “But somebody should knee your dad in the nuts, too.”
Taylor raises her hand. “I volunteer as tribute.”
The corner of my mouth tilts up because our sweet librarian is totally serious. “Shacking up with a hockey player has brought out your violent side,” I say. “It looks good on you, Tay.”
“Or maybe your strength is rubbing off on me,” she counters, her spun sugar smile back in play.
“I’m not strong.” I shake my head. “I’m a total coward, keeping secrets and pretending to be someone I’m not.” I seem to have gone numb on the inside, which keeps my voice level and my eyes dry. It can’t last, but I’ll deal with my emotions later. They’re a problem for a woman who isn’t surrounded by the people she loves most in the world, with an aching wrist and a life falling apart for the second time in as many months. I love my friends, and I love Jeremy. And yet… “I have to leave before my dad can do any real damage.”
“You’re not leaving.” Sloane says this with absolute authority, like she’s the one who gets to decide.
“I have to?—”
“You’re not leaving,” she repeats. “Don’t argue with the cancer patient.”
I know she’s joking, but it’s hard to ignore the lump in my throat that seems to be expanding exponentially. “You don’t understand, Sloane. My father destroyed people. That’s in my blood.” I encircle my bruised wrist with my other hand and squeeze, welcoming the sting. At least that’s a familiar sensation. “And Jeremy’s on his radar because of me.”
“You didn’t do this,” Sadie insists. “It’s not on you.”
“Without me, my dad has no reason to be in Skylark.”
Sloane sighs. “Do you really love my brother?”
I meet her gaze. “With everything I am.”
“You don’t give up on people you love,” she whispers, and I swear you could hear a pin drop on the diner’s vinyl floor. Her jaw is dialed to stubborn as fuck, which is the exact same expression Jeremy employs when he’s decided a point is no longer open for negotiation.
She reaches across and peels my fingers away from my injured wrist. “We’re not giving up, Avs.”
I want to tell her that my feelings for Jeremy aren’t important. Not when a man who scammed hundreds of people is now looking for his next play—one that involves the people I love most.
I let her keep holding my hand, though. Because the bone-deep numbness that kept me safe earlier is starting to thin, and her grip is the only thing anchoring me to this moment.
“We need to tell you about our conversation with Jeremy,” Iris says. She glances around the table, a beat of silent communication passing between them.
I blink. “Excuse me?”
“There may have been an ambush at Sadie’s house,” Piper admits. “We wanted to get clear on his intentions.”
A strangled sound escapes my throat that could be a laugh in better circumstances. “Absolutely not.”
“Absolutely.” Molly doesn’t look remotely apologetic.
“And?” The word is out before I can remind myself that it doesn’t matter what Jeremy said. I’m about to remove myself from his life to protect him from my family’s particular brand of destruction.
Iris and Sloane exchange another look.
“He didn’t exactly drop the L word,” Sloane says with an IYKYK shrug. “My brother has the emotional intelligence of a trout, so that shouldn’t come as a shock.”
“But he didn’t have to say it.” Molly leans in. “When Sadie asked what you meant to him, he looked like a man who’d beentrying to solve a Rubik’s Cube for over a decade and all six sides suddenly clicked into place.”
My chest constricts.
