Page 217 of Hard Pass

When I pull back, my lips hover over his. “I love you,” I whisper.

“I love you, Trouble.” He chuckles.

Patterns might never lie, but I learned a valuable lesson out of this.

Sometimes the things that matter most can’t be explained by data or predicted by behavior.

Sometimes love doesn’t arrive logically.

Sometimes it’s messy and terrifying and walks straight through fire for you anyway.

And sometimes the one person you never saw coming becomes the safest place you’ve ever known.

I pull him toward me for another kiss, so utterly overwhelmed by the moment.

His lips curve up against mine. “You are aware there’s a room full of reporters with cameras out there, right?”

I look at him and think of everything we survived to get here—the lies, the fear, the heartache—and how he still chose me publicly anyway.

“Let them see us,” I say. “I’m done hiding what matters.”

CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE

Cole

The front door clicks shut as the sound of Jaxon and Malachi’s engines pull out of the driveway. I lean back against the door, close my eyes, and blow out a long, ragged breath.

I appreciate their show of solidarity by coming here but having to explain what Tristan did, having to listen to their disbelief and their “are you sure,” was more brutal than I expected. Maybe because I’ve had a few extra days to process his betrayal while theirs is still fresh. I don’t know.

It’s a fucked situation all around.

“You okay?” Dublin asks from the middle of the great room.

“No. Yes.” I shake my head and laugh. “Fuck if I know. It’s been a doozy of a few days.”

“True, but you survived it and now we figure out where to go from here.”

“Hmm.” I push off the wall and move toward her, picking up two empty beer bottles on the way and tossing them in the trash. “That was harder than I thought.”

“What was?” she asks, coming up behind me and wrapping her arms around my waist.

“Explaining it to them. I felt I needed to make excuses for Tristan when there aren’t any.” I blow out a breath and put my hands on her arms and squeeze. “For ten years it’s been the four of us. It’s hard to think of it only being three now.”

“You’re allowed to forgive him,” she says.

“Knee-jerk reaction is fuck no.” I shrug and then sigh. “I keep trying to decide what hurts worse, what he did or the fact that a part of me can understand how one gets desperate enough to end up there.”

“It’s probably easier than most think, but most would never use their friend like he did you.”

“I know. Why didn’t he just ask me for the money? Say he was in a jam? Like . . .” My throat burns unexpectedly. “I’m not defending him. It’s just . . . he was my family.”

The words feel like broken glass in my throat.

Because that’s the part nobody really talks about—not the betrayal itself but the wave of grief after, losing someone who was stitched in your life for so long that you don’t know where the damage ends and the empty space begins.

She presses a kiss against my shoulder blade and sighs. “You told Mal and Jax that you were okay if they still stayed friends with him.”

I nod, my lips twisting and mind racing. “It’s not my job to be their moral compass. Maybe they can be his. I don’t know. Tristan’s in a world of hurt. I’m furious with him, but the last thing I want is to be responsible for cutting him off from everything he knows.”