Page 105 of Spencer and the Younger Girl
“Did he tell you?”
Hadley shook her head. “I didn’t figure it out until the elevator. Is that why he left?”
“I think it was part of it. That was the most painful thing I’ve ever endured, but Spencer… it broke him.”
She’d seen the evidence of that in the way he kept himself apart from everything and how anger seemed to be his natural set point.
“I’ve shared more than I should with you.” Victoria pinned her with a look. “Now, tell me why you two aren’t together anymore.”
“Why do you care?” It was a meaningful question. Victoria was engaged with a baby on the way. She spent her time in college classes, working toward a better life. What did it matter to her what happened to an old boyfriend?
“I will always care about Spencer.” She finally looked away and ran a hand through her hair. “When I came over for lunch, I saw it, the looks. When Spencer and I started dating in high school, it was just expected, inevitable. He didn’t look at me with any kind of hunger or passion. I never once felt like the center of his universe.”
“He didn’t look at me that way.”
“Spencer Lee is not one to let his emotions show, ever. But with you, they leak through his stoic facade. I think you’re the only person who could make him stay in Gulf City.”
“Then why did he dump me?” Her voice was louder than she’d meant it to be.
Roman set three to-go cups on the table and sat beside Hadley. “What did I miss?”
Hadley shrugged. “Victoria was about to tell me how a guy can care about a girl, yet cause her pain. How he can not show up to the hospital where her grandpa has been fighting for his life.”
Roman’s expression hardened. Good. Someone else was angry for her.
Victoria looked sad. “I will never claim to understand anything Spencer does.” She stood and wrapped her hands around the cup. “Thanks for the tea. It was nice talking to you, Hadley.”
With that, she walked out as if none of her words had caused any pain.
But they did.
Hadley buried her face in her arms.
Roman rubbed her back. “Do we hate her?”
“No.” Hadley’s words were muffled by her sleeve. “I wish she wasn’t so nice. I want to hate someone so bad.”
“Spencer?” he suggested.
She shook her head. As much as she wished it wasn’t true, Victoria’s information changed everything. Spencer wasn’t just a jerk who abandoned his family for three years.
He was a broken man trying to heal.
But she knew the Lees. What Spencer hadn’t understood was running didn’t heal anything. People did.
She rested her head on Roman’s shoulder. “Thanks for being here.”
“That’s what family is for.”
When she’d first offered to let Roman live in her house instead of moving overseas where his awful parents had relocated, she figured they’d become good friends.
She’d never expected to get a brother out of it.
“If anything bad ever happens to me,” she whispered. “Don’t let me run.”
It hadn’t helped Spencer forget or move on, but the people he loved might have. He had a brother and wonderful parents. They all just needed to figure out how much they needed each other.
Just like… “I think I need him, Rome.”
Roman didn’t say the normal platitudes like she only needed herself or she’d be okay. Because he got it. He needed Cassie like she needed Spencer.
To breathe.
“But he doesn’t need me.”
