Callie was lucky to havehim, too. They were a beautiful couple.
“My grandma is offering to pay for my MFA,” Zach said. “On the condition that I get married first. You know. Because artists don’t make any money and I have to have someone to support me.” He rolled his eyes.
He knew his grandma meant well, but while he needed the money to evenconsidergoing back to school, he was doing just fine with whatever work he could pick up and sales of his pieces.
Hell,he’dbeen supporting Aiden, mostly, but his grandma wouldn’t budge. He knew her well enough to know better than to ask.
“And I’ve got a spot, but I’ve already deferred it for a full year, and if I don’t register for classes next week I’ll lose it,” Zach said.
“Oh,” Flynn said. “So you were getting married tomorrow…”
“Because of the deadline, yeah. I mean. I would have been happy with Aiden, I think. I don’t know anymore. Maybe I pushed him into this. Maybe this is my fault,” he said, looking down at the floor.
His mouth was trembling again, and the tears were stinging at his eyes, and he wished he’d never gotten intoanyof this.
“I just saw a way for all my dreams to come true and now…” Zach trailed off, swallowing thickly.
Flynn made a sympathetic noise, but didn’t say anything.
“He asked, though,” Zach said quietly. “He asked me to marry him, and I didn’t tell him about the condition until after because I thought it’d never happen, but then he was so excited and he said the sooner the better and I… this isn’tfair.”
Tears spilled over onto his cheeks, his lungs burning with the need for air, and his chest hurt, and hishearthurt, and he couldn’t do this. He’d lost everything he’d thought he had in the space of an hour and it wasn’t fair and maybe he did deserve it but he couldn’t see what he’d done wrong.
It wasn’tfair.
“I just wanted one nice thing for myself and I thought I had it and now everything I had is gone,” Zach said, louder than he meant to, shocking himself. “I hate him.”
He swallowed thickly, took a deep breath, and then sighed. “I don’t hate him,” Zach corrected.
He didn’t. He was just mad, and heartbroken, and felt as though he was in free fall, his whole world crumbling around him. He was going to get married, finish his MFA, then settle down and maybe talk to Aiden about adopting a kid or six. That had been the life plan. Everyone was going to be happy.
Except Aiden obviously hadn’t been, but also hadn’t been willing to talk to Zach about it. Was he really that bad?
“Do you want me to talk to him?” Flynn asked, soft and gentle.
Zach looked up at him through tears. “Do you think he’ll listen?”
Flynn shrugged. “Maybe. Worth a shot. Could just be that he got nervous.”
Zach sniffed, and then nodded. If there was the faintest hope…
He didn’tcareabout the wedding. Not really. It’d be a shame to miss it, but… Aiden was the only person in the world who saw him for who he was.
And now he’d run away, which maybe said more about Zach than it did about him. Maybe he’d asked for too much. All he’d wanted was to be loved.
“You should take a nap,” Callie said. “And I think all three of us could stand to eat, so we’ll bring you something back. Okay?”
Zach nodded, feeling all of five years old. “Okay,” he said. His stomach growled in agreement, and hecouldhave used a nap right about now. He felt hollowed out and exhausted.
Flynn clasped a hand around Zach’s shoulder and guided him gently to the bed, sitting with him while he kicked off his shoes and changed into a pair of sweatpants he’d brought along.
He even held the covers up for Zach as he crawled into the bed, and if Zach hadn’t already known, it would have been so easy to tell that he was the older brother. Everything about him was socaring.
“Everything’ll look better after a nap. Promise,” Flynn said. “And I’ll talk to him. He might just come around.”
“Thank you,” Zach said. “For… all of this.”
“No problem,” Flynn responded, tucking the blankets around him. “That’s what family’s for, right?”
