Page 101 of The Truth About Love

I nod silently. She’s right. There are no words I can say to make this better.

Her eyes widen as she spots something over my shoulder. I follow the trajectory of her gaze to find Cara watching us with pursed lips and a hand on her hip. She clears her throat and stares at me accusingly.

“I think you’re needed,” Summer-Raine says, her voice flat.

In the few seconds I was looking away, she’s managed to school her features into a blank expression that gives nothing away. She’s shut herself down. There’s no anger on her face anymore, no pain or sadness, no emotion at all.

It was better when she was screaming at me.

“Ignore her.”

“She’s your wife.”

“I don’t need reminding.”

She laughs quietly, but there’s no amusement in it. It’s a cold laugh. Hollow. Almost sinister. My heart drops as she takes a step backward, turning around to walk away.

I resist the urge to clasp her wrist to stop her.

“Where are you going?” She doesn’t answer. I watch her take a few more steps before I call out, “Summer-Raine.”

“Go back to your wife, Auden.” She doesn’t even turn around, just throws the words over her shoulder as she gets further and further away from me.

Though I can feel Cara’s glare burning into my back, I don’t go to her. Instead, I watch the woman I once thought would be my forever walk away from me. Every step she takes is another step away from everything we could have been.

But maybe there was never any hope for us anyway.

We’ve both fucked up over the years. We’ve both hurt each other when we shouldn’t have and caused more pain than either of us deserved. And that’s our problem, isn’t it? It’s like we can’t help ourselves. We fuck up time and time again. It’s been seven years since we were first together and we still haven’t learned.

We’re a tempest. A storm raging over wild waves. Loving Summer-Raine has always been like that. Like a natural disaster. As fatal, devastating and inevitable as a star burning out.

Chapter Twenty-seven

Summer-Raine

“Come on girl, it’s been two weeks. You’ve gotta get out of bed,” Marlowe says, throwing open the drapes and drenching the room in blinding light.

I whimper, the sunlight bringing me physical pain. It’s been fourteen days since I last saw it.

Not long after I got back from rehab, I bumped into Marlowe in the grocery store. I’d somehow convinced her to have a coffee with me so that I could explain why I fell off the grid after high school. It had taken some grovelling on my part, but she’d eventually accepted my apology. Fast forward a year and she’s insisted on moving in for a while to help me cope with Auden’s betrayal.

“It hurts so much, Mar.”

She takes a seat beside me on the bed and strokes her hand through my matted hair. “I know, Summer. I know.”

My eyes burn, but nothing leaks out. I guess I’ve got no tears left to cry. All I’ve done for the last two weeks is weep. It’s been relentless. I’m dehydrated, I have a permanent migraine and I feel so weak that I don’t know if I’d be able to stand if I even wanted to get up.

“It’s two-thirty in the afternoon. Let’s grab a coffee at The Grind and take a walk? Just for a little while.”

I bat her away. “I don’t want to go out.”

“Come on.” She throws the covers off of me and tugs at my arm.

“I swear to God, Marlowe. If you don’t fuck off right now, I might end up hitting you.”

“Good.” She chuckles. “Then at least you’d be out of bed.”

I wish she’d go away.

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