Page 101 of When the Stars Fall
Long after her car had disappeared from view, I was still standing in the driveway, wondering what she would have said.
I miss you, Jude. I still love you. Let’s run away together and fuck each other’s brains out. We’ll hide away from the world and stay in bed for an entire weekend like we did when you came home on leave that first time.
Doubt she would have said any of that. In all likelihood, if she ever thought of me at all she remembered the bad shit. But before all that, there was friendship and there was love. So much love.
I shook off my memories and watched the sun set over the lush green hills, the sky painted pink and orange, the bluebonnets and wildflowers a ribbon of color in the field across our two-lane road. The air smelled sweeter here. Scented with freshly cut grass and the purple flowers of my mom’s Mountain Laurel.
Home sweet home.
“You good?” Jesse asked, coming to stand next to me.
“Yeah. It’s all good.” It wasn’t. Not even fucking close.
“It’s gotta be hard though, right?”
I shrugged one shoulder. “Where you headed?” I asked, noting the helmet in his hand. Jesse had always preferred two wheels to four.
“Meeting up with Tanner and Mason. We’re gonna kick back and have a few beers, shoot some pool. You wanna come?”
They were his friends from high school. I didn’t really know them. When I’d left for boot camp, Jesse was only thirteen. By the time I came home, he had sponsorships for motocross and was on the road a lot.
“Nah. I’m good. Thanks.”
“Sure.”
He started walking toward his motorcycle then turned around. “I never thought it was right what Brody did. But I wasn’t around much, so I don’t know exactly what went down.”
“It’s in the past. Can’t change it now.”
“Guess not. Don’t get the wrong idea. I don’t hate Brody. I think he’s a good guy. Just not the right guy for Lila.”
Not sure that I was the right guy for Lila anymore either but I didn’t mention that.
“We all love Noah.”
“He seems like a good kid.”
“Yeah, he’s cool. For what it’s worth, I think you and Brody should talk it out. We’re still family. That’s never gonna change.”
I looked out at the road as a jacked-up truck drove past, music blasting. “Where do they live?” As if I was actually considering ‘talking it out.’
“They?” Jesse’s brow furrowed. “You mean Lila and Noah?”
“They don’t live with Brody?”
“You thought they were together?”
“They’re not?” I asked in surprise.
Jesse laughed and shook his head. “Holy shit. I love you, bro, but sometimes you’re an idiot.”
I scowled at him. He held up both hands. “Hey. I would have told you anything you wanted to know but you never asked.”!
Would I have come back sooner if I knew this? I wasn’t so sure. Just because Lila didn’t live with Brody didn’t change the fact that they had a kid together.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Lila
