Cabe frowns. “So?”
I take a breath. “So, you have to decide if you can live with that. If you can’t, I’ll understand,” I say. “I really hope you can because it would suck to lose you, but it would kill Axle to lose his brother.”
His entire face scrunches. “What the hell are you talking about? You can’t lose me.” Then he wraps one powerful armaround my shoulders. Pulling me against his side. “You’re my best friend, Jojo.”
My throat tightens.
“Have been since I was eight years old.” His voice is rough. “I love you, and you love me. It may not be what it once was. Or the falling-out-of-a-tree kind of love.”
A sob escapes me.
“It’s just as strong.”
“Stronger,” I mutter.
Then he sighs. “Axle is—”
“You don’t have to tell me who Axle is, Cabe. I’ve always known who he is.”
He raises a brow. “I was gonna say, Axle is my brother. I have to love him. Have to forgive him. It just might take me a minute.”
“That’s fair.” The words come out broken.
For a moment, neither of us speaks. The wind blows across the porch.
He finally pulls back enough to look at me. “This summer did not go the way I’d thought it would.”
“Shocked the hell out of me,” I agree as I stand. “I need to check on him.”
He offers me a sad smile. “Is it that bad? I didn’t collapse his lung, did I?”
I shake my head. “No. Re-broke his rib and maybe cracked another. But I swear, he’s like a cat with nine lives.”
He chuckles. “He is a tough bastard.”
I head down the steps to my truck.
And he calls after me, “Jovie.”
I glance back at him.
“We’re all gonna be okay. Eventually.”
I nod because that’s the best I could hope for. Better than I deserve.
Axle
The first thing I feel when I wake is pain.
It sits low in my ribs, sharp and deep, like somebody took a hot branding iron to my side and forgot to remove it. My face isn’t much better. My jaw aches. My cheekbone throbs. Even my damn eyebrow hurts.
A small smile tugs at my mouth.
Cabe hits harder than he used to.
I brace my hand to my right side and start to sit up when I feel Jovie. She’s curled against my side beneath the blankets, one arm stretched across my stomach, her face tucked against my chest. Her warmth penetrating my body.
I lie still for a moment, staring at the ceiling of her cabin while the morning sunlight spills through the curtains.
