Page 93 of Lessons in Heartbreak

Ruby tilted her head. “How is this Griffin’s fault?” she asked. “He didn’t know they were showing up. As soon as they got here, he told them what they did was wrong.”

“Don’t worry about defending me, birdy,” I told her. “He won’t listen to a word of it.”

Barrett licked his lips, giving her as friendly a look as he could manage, which wasn’t saying much. “My brother and I need some privacy, Ruby, if you don’t mind stepping outside.”

“She is my guest,” I said icily, stepping forward, chest expanding on a deep breath. “You don’t ask her to go anywhere.”

She set her hand on my arm, and the effect was immediate—like sweet, cool water poured over the frustrated heat that only my brother seemed skilled enough to ignite. “It’s okay,” she said. “I’ll go outside with the kids.” Then she paused and looked up into my face. “Unless you want me to stay.”

My heart kicked at the back of my ribs in a single, uneven beat. I did want her to stay. Having her around made everything better, and that sent a coil of fear so quick down my spine, because the passage of time just went quicker and quicker every single day.

Ruby was the literal grains of sand sliding through my fingers. No matter how tightly I clenched my fist, there was no stopping the way she’d slip out of my grasp when all this was over.

“You can go,” I said quietly. “This won’t take long.”

She gave me an encouraging smile, and with petty satisfaction, I saw it tighten uncomfortably at the edges when she shifted it toward Barrett.

The moment she was outside, wisely pulling the sliding doors shut behind her, my brother let out a disbelieving laugh. “Oh, wow, Griffin. That’s ... that’s something even for you.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and turned to face him. “Fuck off, Barrett. We’re friends.”

He pursed his lips. “Yeah, you’ve had a lot of those.”

“Not like her.”

At my tone—hard and cold, brimming with tightly leashed violence—his eyebrows popped up briefly. “She was always a nice kid. Smart. Quiet. Better than both of us, that’s for sure.”

He’d get no argument from me there. My eyes found her as he spoke, and the way she smiled at Maggie and Bryce made my chest feeltight. She eased into the water, immediately joining another round of Marco Polo.

Shewasbetter than me. In pretty much every way.

“Don’t let her be another consequence of the shit you don’t think through,” my brother said quietly.

I thought about what Liam had said. What Marcus had said. And I thought about my own roller-coaster thoughts when it came to that woman and her big gray eyes. I did want her. I did have feelings that were changing. Good changes.

Big, scary, uncomfortable changes.

And while she was still in my orbit, there would be no walking away, no putting up invisible boundaries in some cut-rate attempt to protect myself. As long as Ruby wanted me, I was hers. And I still would be, even after she didn’t.

I swallowed past the flimsy denial crowding my throat, tearing my eyes away from Ruby. “Anything else you’d like to lecture me on?”

He sighed, looking back out at his kids with a slight shake of his head. “I chartered a private flight to Arizona from here. We’re gonna go visit Mom and Dad.” His jaw flexed. “I’ll change the flight to tomorrow and pick them up around ten. Make sure they’ve had breakfast.”

My mouth popped open, but I snapped it shut. “Sure.”

“No drinking while they’re here,” he said firmly.

“I won’t,” I promised. “Uh, Marcus Henderson has been crashing with me the last few nights, but I’ll tell him he’s gotta go back to Denver.”

“The giant Viking frat boy from college that convinced you to throw a kegger in the college president’s backyard?”

I winced. “That’s the one.”

“Fuck’s sake,” he muttered. “Yeah, I’d appreciate that.”

In stunned silence, I watched my brother sigh heavily, the toll of all this clear on his face.

He caved. He was allowing space in his kids’ lives for me, even if it was just this once. Fuck if I didn’t feel a little bit like the Grinch, anunsteady punch to the heart that seemingly grew three sizes as I stared at the brother who’d never conceded a single inch for me in the last fifteen years.

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