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None of it will make the truth painless. If this was her that had fucked a guy to forget me I know I would be bothered but I’m logical enough to know that facts are facts and I left her. It’s what I expected had happened.
I want to go after her so badly that remaining beside the fire feels like tearing myself in half. The part of me that has always responded to Charm’s pain wants to find her, hold her, and explain until she stops looking at me like another piece of our relationship was a lie.
I remain beside Briggs.
Charm asked me to trust the woman she has become. Tonight, that means trusting her to survive a painful truth without making her reaction more important than the man whose entire relationship just collapsed in front of us.
It also means trusting that when I finally walk into that conversation, I won’t apologize for anything when she wasn’t mine.
21
Ryan
I remain beside Briggs until the fire burns low enough that the wood collapses into itself.
He doesn’t unblock Lyric. He checks his phone twice, stares at the empty space where her name used to be, and hands it to Cade before wanting her becomes stronger than remembering what she did. Temple stays beside him without trying to fill every silence. She argues about the correct number of marshmallows required for emotional support, gives him the larger half of the final s’more, and makes him laugh once without looking proud of herself for managing it.
Charm doesn’t come back.
Every minute she remains inside the castle pulls harder against the part of me that has always treated her pain like an emergency. I stay where I am because Briggs needs me and because Charm’s reaction doesn’t transform something I did while single into another betrayal.
By the time Cade leads Briggs toward the castle, the night has become cold enough that my dress shirt does nothing against it. Rider appears near the terrace doors as we approach. He stops when he sees me, and the grim set of his mouth confirms the conversation with Charm went as badly as expected.
“She knows the whole story,” he says.
“Which version?”
“The true one. Temple came to the Detroit game as a fan. You were fucked up over being back in Michigan, both of you were single, and one fun night ended in bed.” Rider studies my face. “I told her it happened once. There was never a relationship, and when I brought Temple around months later, you pulled me aside and told me immediately. I assured you Temple and I had only ever been friends, nothing happened between the two of you again, and you’ve remained friends since.”
“How is she?”
“Pissed.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
“She’s hurt, scared, and trying to turn both into something she can control.” His gaze moves toward the third floor. “She asked how many women there were.”
My jaw tightens.
“I told her that part belongs to you,” he adds.
“Thank you.”
“She thinks you should’ve warned her before sleeping with her this weekend.”
The anger that has been simmering beneath my skin becomes hotter. “I warned her that I wasn’t celibate for fifteen months.”
“I told her you didn’t owe her that.”
“She loved that I bet?”
Rider’s expression gives me the answer.
I climb the stairs before the fury gathering inside me convinces me to leave the castle instead.
Charm’s door is closed. Light escapes beneath it, cutting a narrow line across the stone floor. I stop with my hand raised and remember another locked door, another night, and Charm standing outside my apartment asking me to let her explain something she had already broken beyond language.
I knock once.
