As if thinking about him had summoned my ex, I turned the corner and there he was, leaning against a wall, typing something on his phone. He looked up when he saw me and frowned. “Hey. We need to talk.”
I’d been avoiding him, and this talk. I kept using excuses like I needed to heal after the gala, and I was busy, but it was time to hash it out. Now was a horrible time for me to look deep inside of myself for feelings about Sterling, but I didn’t want to lead him on; I wanted to come clean.
I nodded, walking up to him and looking him right in the eye. “Talk.”
He cleared his throat. “I want to move back and be with you again. I’ve missed you.” He reached out and touched a lock of my red hair.
So he didn’t want to even talk about my running off last night. Good. I needed to rip the Band-Aid off and hit him with a truth bomb.
“Here’s the deal, Sterling. You were the first and only man I ever loved.” My throat tightened. “But you broke my heart in such an epic way that it’s not possible for me to be with you again. That’s like self-abuse, and my heart will wonder why we would go back to someone who hurt us like that. I’m just not capable of loving you again after you threw me aside like trash when I bared my deepest feelings to you.” Tears streamed down my face as I gave him the raw truth.
His mouth hung open, pain crossing his features. Before I knew what was happening, he pulled me into a hug, wrapping his arms around me so tightly I started to sob. Even though this was the man who hurt me, I’d never felt so safe as I did right now in these arms.
“Fuck, Aspen. I’m so sorry. You’re right. You deserve better. I have issues and you deserve better,” he rasped against my neck.
Hearing him admit that he had issues and it wasn’t all on me was like a weight had lifted off my shoulders. I pulled back, wiping my eyes with a smile.
“So … we’re friends from here on out? That feels weird.” He ran a hand through his blond locks.
I nodded. “Friends forever. I’ll be married and you’ll be a forty-year-old hunter dating all the twenty-year-olds like Leonardo DiCaprio, and bringing them to my kids’ birthday parties, but we’ll always be friends.”
He grinned, shaking his head, but there was a sadness in his eyes. “I wish I could be what you want, Aspen. I wish I could jump headfirst into lifelong commitment, but I’m just…”
“Scared? Stupid? An idi—”
He reached out and lightly smacked my arm, causing me to laugh.
“Okay, maybe some of those things,” he admitted.
I felt a hundred pounds lighter, and I was actually glad we had this talk.
“I’m always here for you,” he told me.
“Same,” I said, and gave him one last hug before walking away and leaving behind a huge part of my life. I finally got the closure I needed and it felt damn good. Now I just needed to find Liv and tell her all about it.
As I was heading down the hallway to check the gym room for Liv, I felt Luka’s presence overwhelm my mind.‘Can you come get your friend before Izzy kills her?’he growled.
My eyes widened.‘What? What friend?’
‘The one you came to Bang with. She just broke into my apartment and tried to kill me.’
Liv! That crazy woman. What was she thinking?
‘I’ll be right there. Don’t hurt her!’
I could feel his frustration through our stupid bond.‘I can’t make any promises if she wakes up and tries to take my head off again.’
‘Dammit, Luka, she’s my sister. Don’t. Hurt. Her.’
I tore off down the hallway, then made a left out into the foyer of the society.
He was silent. ‘Just hurry. Izzy has a sword to her neck and I can’t hold her back forever.’
Oh God.
I ran past Finn, who started to say something, but I waved him off. “Sorry, hunter emergency!”
“Careful, lass!” he called out.
