“You are not your dad.” The words came out low and furious, his breath fogging between us. “Fuck, Liam. You’re nothing like your dad. Just because youlooklike him doesn’t mean youactlike him.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do know that.” He shook me once, hard enough to rattle my teeth. “Don’t make me fucking punch you again. I’ve known you for practically my entire life. Twenty fucking years. I’ve watched you stay loyal to your friends, to your team, to your mom. You’re the most loyal person I’ve ever met.”
“Loyalty doesn’t mean I won’t hurt her.”
“No, but running away sure as hell does.” His grip on my jacket tightened. “I’ve never known you to be a coward, and I sure as shit didn’t expect that you’d run away from the best thing that ever happened to you.”
The words hit me like a puck to the gut.
His eyes bored into mine. “You make your own choices,Liam. Your DNA doesn’t decide who you are. Your actions do.”
I couldn’t speak. Could barely breathe. The cold was seeping into my bones now, but I didn’t care.
“So here’s what’s going to happen.” Drew released my jacket but didn’t step back. “If you love my sister, then you need to stop throwing yourself a pity party, get off your ass, and fix this. Fight for her the way she deserves.”
He paused, and his gaze narrowed. “But if you don’t love her—if this was all just some game to you—then tell me right now.”
The question hung between us, but I didn’t have to think about the answer.
I knew.
I’d known even as I’d broken both our hearts.
“I love her.” The words came out broken. “I love her so much it fucking terrifies me. And I made a mistake. The worst mistake of my life.”
Drew’s expression shifted—his eyes losing their hardness and his lips lifting slightly at the corners.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought you’d say. So what are you doing here?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why are you sitting out here in the fucking freezing cold instead of getting on your knees in front of my sister and begging for her forgiveness?”
“Drew—”
“She’s at the house.” He stepped back, giving me space. “She’s been hiding in the barn all day. Mom thinks she’s doing homework away from Rory since she’s teething and miserable, but I figure she just didn’t want to be around people.”
The barn. That damn barn was always going to be our place in my mind from now on.
“What if she doesn’t forgive me?”
“Then you try harder.” He clapped me on the shoulder—hard, but not unkind. “But you don’t give up. You don’t run. That’s not who you are, Liam. It never has been.”
I nodded once, clapped him on the back, and then started toward my truck. I’d made it about ten steps when Drew’s voice stopped me.
“Hey.”
I turned.
“If you hurt her again, I won’t be so understanding.” His eyes were serious, all traces of the almost-smile gone. “Best friend or not, I will end you.”
“I know.”
“Good.” He jerked his chin toward the parking area. “Now let’s get out of here. I’m freezing my ass off.”
I didn’t go to the barn. Not because I didn’t want to fix things as soon as possible, but because there was someone else I needed to talk to first—someone who’d lived the nightmare I thought I was saving Ava from.
