Page 78 of The Triple Play

“Girls?” Cole said, the word curling out of his mouth like it disgusted him. “Yeah. Great. Have fun with them. I can guarantee you none of them will be like her.”

The silence that followed hurt more than his words. I pushed off the barstool and moved to the recliner, staring vaguely in the direction of the muted television.

“I know that,” I said quietly. “But it’s been weeks. She hasn’t reached out since Xavi went to see her. She’s done, and we’ve got to at least try to move on?—”

Xavi slammed his can of beer down on the counter behind me. I flinched. “You don’t know she’s done,” he snapped, his voice cutting through the room like a whip.

“Xav, she told you it’s over?—”

“You don’t know what she’s thinking, you don’t know what she’s feeling,” Xavi continued, his voice rising, his words starting to blur together. “You didn’t see the way she fuckingcriedwhen she said it, you didn’t feel her clinging to you like she didn’t want to let go. You don’t know shit and you’re just guessing ‘cause it makes it easier to forget her.”

“No one’s trying to forget her, Xav,” I said, my head tipping back onto the cushion. I was trying to stay calm, but I knew Xavi, knew there was a chance his anger would bleed and make him want to fight. “We’re all trying not to fall apart.”

Xavi’s laugh was hollow. “How’s that working out for you?”

He didn’t wait for an answer. Instead, he grabbed his jacket, his beer in hand, and headed for the front door. I stood, but he was already opening the front door, and I couldn’t find it in me to chase him down the driveway when I wasn’t even wearing a shirt or shoes.

Cole looked at me, his jaw tense, his gaze flicking toward the hall as the front door slammed shut hard enough to make the walls rattle. “You think he’s gonna drive like that?”

I shook my head and slowly lowered myself back into the recliner. “No. His keys are on the counter. He’s just blowing off steam.”

Cole sighed, rubbing his hands with his face, his legs flexing like he was preparing to run after Xavi himself. But I was pretty sure we both knew that would just end in shouting.

I stared at the TV again, watching the way the lights from above reflected in it. No matter what I did in this house, I couldn’t shake the ghost of Annie in here, even though it had only been one night and she hadn’t been here in well over a month and a half. It still felt like she was everywhere.

“You can’t just keep pretending like everything’s fine,” Cole said, his voice cutting through the uncomfortable silence.

I turned to him, blinking in confusion. “I’m not.”

“You are.” His hands dropped to his sides, his lips pursing. “You keep cracking jokes, acting like we’ll all just find someone else. You think that helps? You think that’s what we need right now?”

I swallowed.

“Because I can tell you upfront that it’s not helping Xavi. That’s making things worse,” he said, his tone clipped, like this was uncomfortable for him. “And it’s putting me on edge. So for the love of god, stop trying to help like that.”

I loosed a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding and leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees, rubbing my face with my hands. “Jesus, man. I’m not just trying to help, I’m trying tosurvive. I don’t… I don’t know how else to do that.”

Cole stared at me as I rubbed my jaw, his gaze a little hard, his eyes unwavering.

“I’m not fine,” I said, my voice a little hoarse from the rawness of my words. “Do you think I am? You think this isn’t killing me, too?”

“I know you’re not. Just like you know I’m not,” he said. “It’s the way you’re acting?—”

“Fucks sake, Cole, she was in my bed one night and gone the next,” I went on, cutting him off, the worlds tumbling fast now without a filter. “She looked at me like I was hers, looked atallof us like that, like I meant something, likewemeant something, and then one threat from her dad and she’s gone. No calls. No texts. Nothing. I’ve been checking her socials like a psychopath, but she’s not posted a damn thing. She’s just… gone.”

Cole didn’t say a word.

“I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to fix it,” I said, my voice a little quiet. “I understand the why. I do. If I had a single thing left of Melody’s, I’d fucking cling to it. But she won’t even let us in to try to help.”

I fought off the threat of memories of Melody, burying my head in my hands and instead sinking into thoughts of Annie, the way she grinned at me when she was teasing me, the way she broke apart in my hands when I touched her, the way she tucked herself into my chest in bed like she never wanted to be anywhere else. For once, I felt like Xavi, like I fell too hard and too fast all at once.

Cole sighed and stood up, his footsteps moving about the living room, but I didn’t look up when he sat down on the arm of the recliner.

“Xav said that she told him it couldn’t work,” I rasped. “But I don’t think she thinks that’s true for a goddamn second. She wanted it.”

“I know,” he sighed. “Maybe… shit, I don’t know, maybe we can figure out a way to help her. She’s twenty-five, she shouldn’t be having a trust controlled by her father. There’s got to be something there.”

I stilled. “What do you mean?”

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