Page 183 of Breaking Point
Something shifted that weekend when we went to my parents’ house. Something that I can’t put my finger on. But I love it all the same. If Bella’s in a room, my body is pulled to hers, our gazes locking like two magnets finding their other half.
That, and when I flirt with her through text messages, she doesn’t completely ignore me anymore.
We’ve been dancing around each other for weeks. Me waiting for a cue from her and Bella still very much dancing along the cliff. I wish she would allow herself to let go. To fall into whatever is happening between us.
But I know deep down, this is something she needs to decide on her own. It has to be solely on her terms, otherwise she’ll run.
We haven’t been able to go on that date I teased her about.
It breaks my heart to even think about it, but the medication her mom’s taking isn’t working. Any free moment Bella has, she’s spending it with her mom despite being somewhat in denial. She’ll relay to me what the oncologist says and though it’s never good news, she’ll lift up her chin, straighten her shoulders, and declare that the next phase in the treatment will be the one to work.
I never have the heart to disagree with her.
I may be joking around with O’Connor and Johnson about the chaos she’s getting up to, but Bella truly needed this. She needed a night away from the endless doctor’s appointments, anight away from her mother who is withering before her eyes. She needed a minute without the weight of her mother’s cancer on her shoulders.
As I pull up to my house and find strobe lights flashing through the front hallway, I can’t help but smile.
Asher drops his head with laughter before slapping my shoulder. “I’ll pay for any damages.”
I smirk. “Who’s to say this is all Cindy? Have you met Bella? You can’t get her to do anything she doesn’t want to do.”
He chuckles. “Quite the pair we have.”
A pang hits my chest.
I wish this was real. That I was coming home to my girlfriend and not my assistant I’m paying to date me.
He turns to me. “Regretting introducing them?”
“Fuck no,” I answer quickly. “Honestly, I think Bella couldn’t have met Cindy at a better time.”
It’s obvious she’s been struggling with Layla’s absence.
Asher turns to the house, with what we can now hear is karaoke filtering from the windows. “Same with Cindy.” His shoulders seem to weigh more heavily upon him, his face forlorn.
“Is everything all right?”
He snaps out of it before sighing heavily. “Honestly, no, but hopefully it will be.”
Strobe lights forgotten, I turn to my teammate and friend, hating myself for not seeing there was something going on sooner. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“I don’t think I can.”
I look from the door to him, and he must see something in my face because he blows out another breath. “Nothing like that. It’s just…Cindy’s story to share. I promised I wouldn’t tell anyone until she’s ready.”
“But it’s eating you up not being able to talk to anyone about it,” I guess.
All I get is a nod.
I step closer, lowering my voice despite the loud music and singing pouring from my house. “Look, I’m never going to ask you to betray her trust, but if it’s getting to the point where it’saffecting you, you can talk to me and I’ll be a vault. It will never leave outside of us, and I love Cindy like a sister. She’s been our cheerleader since the moment you were drafted to the team. I’ll never treat her differently.”
He just keeps nodding, looking at me like he wants to spill his guts right here and now until he plasters on a smile and says, “I might take you up on the offer. I’ll just give her a little more time.”
“Okay, no pressure. My door is always open.”Nowis what I don’t add.
“Thanks, Crawford. Same to you,” he adds pointedly.
The moment I open the front door, our ears are assaulted by the most godawful singing known to man. Asher and I turn to each other, both wearing mirrored expressions of horror.
