“I did, Peaches, and that’s what got us here,” he said, putting his hat on.
“My name is Sam, I stopped being Peaches the moment you reduced us to just a stop,” I said, opening the door for him.
Forest opened his mouth looking towards Jude’s bedroom and I hoped Jude hadn’t hear what he had just said.
“Sam, I?—”
I looked away from him not wanting to hear anything more. I didn’t know if my heart could take it and I didn’t want Jude to hear anything else either. Forest had just ripped us apart, and I didn’t even know if we could survive this.
28
jude
How did we go from my favorite Christmas to an absolute shit show? I thought we had been great. I thought we had time, but dammit, I was wrong. My lip trembled as I climbed into my bed, my head repeating everything Forest had just said to us.
I don’t stick around. Sterling Ridge was just a stop for me.
Sam and I knew Forest was drifter, that he moved from town to town, but stupidly, I thought that maybe we would be enough. The door slammed shut making me flinch. The house was quiet and my heart sank. They both had left me.
I pushed my face into my pillow that still smelled like Forest as my tears flowed freely. My heart ached as I let myself cry, hating that I was stupid enough to think that I could change a man's mind.
“Jude.”
I turned around quickly to see Sam getting in bed with me.
“Baby,” he said, reaching for me and I went into his arms.
“I… I thought you had left,” I cried.
“No, I wouldn’t leave you like this,” he said, wrapping his arms around me holding me close. “I just had to say something to Forest and then I realized there was no point.”
“For a moment I thought maybe we had a chance,” I muttered against his chest.
“Me too, Baby,” he sighed. “I knew once I said something about Toronto it might all crumble and maybe I was stupid to say something, but?—”
I pulled back abruptly.
“It’s his loss,” I said, even though I didn’t believe my words. “We shouldn’t be afraid to say things to each other. He should have made things clearer; he should have pulled himself away or —”
“Did we push it?” Sam said softly. “Was it easier to go along with us than to cut us off?”
“Forest is a big boy, if he truly didn’t want us, he could have put the brakes on this entire thing at any time,” I snapped, getting angry. “He led us on, he should have told us, he should have?—”
“He did tell us,” Sam said. “It was just fun.”
“He said that in the beginning, but things changed, Sammy; you know they did,” I said, grasping at straws. “We spent most of our nights together, at least you guys did, and we did when I wasn’t working, you want to tell me that’s casual?”
“I know it isn’t, but what do you want me to say?” He sounded defeated. “Where did he get that we were moving away if I got signed again?”
“I don’t know,” I said, trying to think who would have told him that.
“Was he right, though? Have you always loved me?” Sam stared at me.
“Have you always loved me?” I took the coward’s way out because I didn’t have the guts to say it.
“Since college,” he said, the words I never would have imagined he would say.
“What the fuck, Sam?” I snapped, my heart pounding so fast that I felt like I might pass out. “Are you serious?”
