Page 176 of Hard Pass

Four words.

My chest aches and stomach twists but for all the right reasons.

Lucas watches me over the rim of his glass. “Well?”

“She said to come home,” I say.

“Then why are you still sitting here? You can’t fix things between you over text.”

I chuckle as I push my beer across the bar and then toss money for the tab beside it. “Thanks.” I stand. “For being here. For . . .”

“My honest feedback?”

“Yeah. That.”

“For the record?” he says, just as I start to walk away. I pause to look back at him. “The fact that you told her means you’re already doing better than you think.”

I don’t know what to say to that, so I nod.

The night air hits when I step outside. I walk toward my SUV, her text still burning in my mind.

Come home to me.

Not, come explain.

Not, come apologize.

Not, come fix everything.

Just, come home.

And now . . . I understand the difference.

I’m not going back because I know what happens next. I’m going back because she asked . . . and because Lucas is right.

I didn’t tell her I’m in love with her so she’d say it back.

I said it because it was true.

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

Cole

The house is quiet when I walk in.

I think. It sounds like she has the white noise ocean waves coming from the TV.

I shut the front door behind me, tossing my keys in the bowl instinctually. I walk toward the family room and stop dead.

“What the hell . . .”

The family room looks like a very tacky tropical resort threw up in it.

There’s a mattress on the floor in front of the fireplace covered in blankets and pillows that definitely belong in other rooms. Every plant in the house has somehow been dragged into the space and arranged in clusters. Candles flicker from every available surface and even the TV has a screensaver of a relaxing beach scene playing.

There’s even—I squint. “Is that a fucking paper umbrella taped to my lamp?”

“Tissue paper made into one. I had to improvise.”