“Thank you. I was wondering how I’d get this back.”
Three sets of eyes are watching us intently and even though I have a hundred things I want to say to her, I close my lips and take a step back. A step back away from her. Even if just laying eyes on her was the best thing to happen to me all week. Even if I’m dying to grab her, hold her, and kiss the hell out of her.
“I finished it. Twilight, I mean. You’ll have to give me the next in the series.”
She shakes her head, a teasing smile hitting the corner of her lips before she tucks it away, staring out into the night. Anywhere but at me.
“I can give it to Wes to give to you.”
“Like a book swap with a third party? No thanks. I won’t bite you, Angel. You can pass it to me through your door, if you can’t handle being around me.”
“Brecken—”
“Right. Forget that. Wes is fine. Wouldn’t want Aria to find out you and I had a secret book club going on where we discuss young adult romance. Or heaven forbid that we were within five feet of each other without a chaperone. Brecken the womanizing asshole is not to be trusted after all.”
Rina’s eyes drop to the ground as she shifts uncomfortably from foot to foot. She’s not even pissed I’m being a dick. At least yell at me so I know you give a shit. Nothing. She just wants to get away from me.
I need to stop. I’m being bitter and unfair, but I’m still so fucking pissed. I’ve been ghosting my sister all week because I can’t stand to talk to her. And then there’s Rina. She didn’t even put up a fight for us. Nothing. She even lied to Aria and said nothing was going on between us. Well, I guess it’s not so much a lie anymore, is it?
How am I supposed to fight for someone who doesn’t want me to fight for them?
I’ve never been this guy before. The guy hung up on the girl he can’t have. The girl who so easily pushes him aside and now looks at him like he was never anything to her. I’ll be honest, it hurts like a motherfucker. Like someone is repeatedly beating my chest with a tire iron. It’s killing me. She’s the only one who’s ever known who I am, who I’m not, but most importantly, who I want to be. She saw the man beneath and now…
And now I lost her.
I have so much to focus on. So many things I need to be thinking and strategizing about.
But all I think about is her.
Clearly, I’m alone in that.
“We should get going.” Wes slaps my back, trying to guide me away, and I both love him and hate him for that right now.
“Have a good night, Rina.” Not Angel, though that’s what I was thinking.
“You, too.”
So cold.
“How are you getting home?” Carter asks, and Rina blusters out an aggravated sound, wanting to be anywhere but here at this point.
“Walking, Carter. Same as I do every night. I have my pepper spray, my phone, and four blocks to manage. I think I can make it. Have fun at the game tonight. Halle texted that Jonah is joining you guys. Should be a good time.”
Yes. Because my life is inextricably wrapped around my sister and her friends. Her people. Jonah works with Oliver at Hughes Healthcare. Jonah is married to Halle. Wes is living with my sister and talking about marrying her. Rina works with Wes, not to mention Drew and Margot.
I’ll never be able to escape her.
As long as I stay in Boston, I’ll have to see her. Watch her. Eventually she’ll meet someone. Date them. And then I’ll really be fucked.
“We can walk you,” I suggest because I’m kinda with her brothers on this. I don’t like her walking home alone.
Rina shakes her head, still not looking at me. “No. Go to your game. I’ve already held you up enough. Have fun tonight.” She plows away from us, not even giving me the chance to continue to argue with her. So stubborn. So willful.
So beautiful she makes my head spin.
“Well, that hurt a lot more than I thought it would. Let’s go drink beer and cheer on Boston sports before I drive to your house, Wes, and give my sister noogies until she screams uncle and relents to letting me date her friend.” Wes gives me a look. “I’m kidding. Sorta. She’s my sister, I’m allowed. How do you think I won all our arguments when we were kids?”
“Look, I like you, otherwise I wouldn’t be here. I know you care about Rina. But you’re moving back to New York, right?”
I shrug at Carter.
“Doesn’t matter what I do,” I say. “She’s already made her decision and it doesn’t include me.”
***
My phone rings at three twenty-two in the morning the next night. Or morning. Whatever. Well, it actually vibrates on my nightstand, but I’m already awake because I no longer sleep, so I hear it. And panic. Because no one calls at this hour unless something awful is going down.
Especially when it’s your best friend calling.
“Wes?”
“I need you to do something for me because I don’t have the time to do it myself and if I call Aria to tell her Margot has been stabbed and I’m heading down to the ED to wheel her up to my OR, Aria will have a million questions and won’t let me get off the phone.”
“Wait. Did you just say—”
“You need to go to my house now and pick Aria up, Brecken, and then you need to bring her here. Margot is not doing well, and Aria will want to be here.”
“Fuck.” Did I hear that right? I mean, what the absolute fuck? “Margot was stabbed?”
“Yes. She was. Move your ass, Breck.”
Jesus. “I’m on my way.”
The phone disconnects and I leave it on the bed, quickly dressing in whatever I come across first. Then I grab my phone, my wallet, and my keys and head out the door, running at a sprint through the cold dark night toward the garage I park my car in.
The second my foot hits the gas, I dial Aria. She doesn’t pick up and I try again. Finally, on the third try, she answers, her voice groggy and terrified. “What’s going on?”
“I’m on my way to pick you up. You need to get dressed. It’s cold out so put on something warm. I will be downstairs in ten minutes. Don’t ask questions. Don’t make any other phone calls. Just do what I’m telling you to do.”
“Brecken—”
“Aria. I need you to move. Now.”
“Um. Okay.” Her voice trembles and my insides harden while simultaneously liquifying. Fear unlike any I’ve ever experienced before cripples me.
“Ten minutes.”
I hit the button on my steering wheel to end the call before she starts asking a million questions. Because that’s what Aria does. It’s why Wes put this on me. He needs to save Margot’s life and I need to get her people to the hospital. If Margot dies, Aria will not be okay. Margot is her people. Rina and Halle too. Which reminds me.
I dial up Jonah Hughes and give him a very quick account of what happened and tell him to get to the hospital. I can hear Halle in the background, screaming, asking questions. Crying. Then, with a trembling hand, I call Rina, not expecting her to pick up. But I can’t have Aria tell her. I have to be the one.
Rina and Margot are as close as any of them. They work together. They call and text each other constantly.