They go from screaming to talking calmly like it’s no big deal. My poor girl.
“I know I broke her heart, but—”
“You didn’t just break her heart,” Vince growls, apparently breathing fine again, even though he’s still clutching his abdomen. “You broke her.”
Now I feel like I’ve been punched.
“He’s going to help us put her back together,” Bora states firmly, putting her dad’s arm around her shoulders as she helps him up. “And he isn’t the only reason Bo is broken,” she adds.
Vince chokes back his emotion as his eyes water, and he looks away from me as Bora helps him limp toward the door.
“If your sister asks, I kicked his ass for her,” I hear him saying as they walk out. “Tell her he begged for mercy.”
I grab my keys and go prepare to stalk Bo’s apartment so I can catch her on her way to work. Yep.
Time to put her back together, no matter how insane it makes me look in the process.
Chapter 44
BO
My door opens after someone uses the keypad, and I make a mental note to change to code. Until I see who it is.
“Hi,” Ruby says gently, as though she’s speaking to a cornered cat as she shuts the door behind her.
I set my wine down, and slide up on the couch so that I’m sitting.
“Hi,” I echo.
She exhales heavily while coming to take a seat beside me, and I pause the TV.
“Are you going to throw me out?” she asks, looking over at me with those big, hopeful eyes.
“No,” I say simply.
“I’ve heard you’ve been kicking everyone else out of your life.”
True story.
“You’re the only person who has ever put my needs above yours, so you can stay if you want to. You don’t walk all over me. You’ve also never yelled at me. I’ve just been cleaning house.”
She flinches, but she looks at the paused TV, avoiding eye contact with me.
“People yell and shout sometimes, Bo. Doesn’t mean they don’t love you.”
“It means they don’t respect me or care enough about me to know I hate it. Especially when I don’t do anything at all to deserve it. I’m over it.”
She nods like she gets it, and she sits back, picking my wine bottle up on the way and taking a sip from it. That’s why Ruby can stay. She isn’t telling me what to do or yelling at me.
“You didn’t answer my calls,” she says.
For the first time in days, I feel something other than annoyance. A pang of guilt catches me off guard.
“I didn’t want to talk to anyone, because I’m tired of everyone wanting the old Bo back. They just want someone to walk all over again.”
“I get it,” she says quietly. “Fuck ‘em,” she adds, shrugging as she takes another sip of wine.
That draws a smile to my lips.