Barney takes hold of my chin and forces me to look in his direction. “You can’t fix what’s ailing him.”
Jokester Barney is being serious. Shit. This situation is worse than I thought.
“He needs to find his own way.”
“But he wasn’t finding his own way,” I insist.
“Not your problem to solve.”
I disagree. Grayson is my friend. Friends don’t let friends drown in their problems alone.
I return my attention to Grayson and Liz sitting at the table. I watch as they stand together. Grayson helps Liz into her coat and then escorts her to the door. As soon as the door closes behind her, he marches in my direction.
He points at me. “You had no right to stick your nose into my past!”
I raise my hands in a gesture of surrender. “I was trying to help.”
“By bringing up the past with Liz? Reminding her of the husband she lost?”
I keep my lips closed. He’s crazy if he thinks my visit brought up any memories for Liz. That woman thinks about her dead husband every single dang day.
“Who do you think you are? Digging around in my past?”
“I’m your friend.” I try to grab his hand, but he steps out of my reach. “I wanted to help. I can tell you’re hurting.”
“Did I ask for your help?” He doesn’t wait for my answer. “No. I did not.”
“But you ask about my past all the time.”
“Ask. I ask you about your past. I haven’t gone digging around. Hell, I can ask Hailey right now and you know she’d tell me everything I want to know. I won’t ask her though because I respect your privacy. Like you should have respected mine.”
“But—”
He raises his hand to cut me off. “I don’t want to hear it. We are done. This friendship is over.” And with those damning words, he spins on his heel and marches away. He exits the bar without a glance backward.
A blade pierces my heart and slashes it in two. I look down but there’s no blood. There’s no blade. No, this is my heart breaking apart. The feeling is achingly familiar. It’s also a feeling I promised myself I would never feel again. But I couldn’t keep the promise to myself. Not when my heart was confronted with all that is Grayson. Shit. I messed up big time. And I don’t think I can fix this.