“He wouldn’t back off.” Chase sounded sheepish. “So I made something up. I didn’t think you still remembered that.”
He didn’t— “Do you have any idea how much that hurt me?” Tears clogged my throat, but I wouldn’t break down here.
“It was a decade ago. You’re friends now, so I figured you were over it,” Chase said.
Anne smacked him on the arm. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
Jax was still staring at me. “I can’t believe you thought I’d say that about you.”
“Who was I supposed to believe?” The question wasn’t completely rhetorical. I no longer knew. “My brother or they guy he overheard talking shit about me? Besides, you apologized.”
“Because you were upset. I wanted you back, and I didn’t know what I’d done.”
Fuck. I didn’t even know which way was up right now.
“We’re gonna go.” Grayson’s knuckles were still curled and pale when he let go of the back of the chair.
Chase nodded. “I think that’s a good idea.”
“No one asked you what you thought. At all.” Anne rarely sounded so angry. “You’re the last person who should have ever had anything to say about this.Ever.”
“Except maybe me.” Because I had no idea what I thought or felt anymore. “You guys do whatever you want. I’m going home.” My brother had lied to me. I’d been hiding for years from an attraction I didn’t want to deny, and harboring a grudge in the process. And my heart felt like a gaping chasm was running through it.
Chapter Eighteen
Iexpected to cry onthe way home, but the tears weren’t there.I was falling in love with you. At least the Jax voice in my head was saying something different than it had for years. My own brother said... I’d been mad at Chase for a lot of things, but this one had me seeing red. And Grayson was, apparently, afriendzoneasshole.
It wasn’t true. Part of me recognized he was hurt, and struggling, like I was.
What was I supposed to do? Life had gone from just the right dash of chaotic, to completely fucked up in a few short weeks. I hated it. I was tired of not knowing where my future was, what I wanted, who I wanted to be with, or where I was going.
Lyn was still gone when I got home. She probably would be for a few more hours. I hoped her day was the polar opposite of mine. But the empty house felt like an expansion for my rambling thoughts.
I headed up to my room and closed the door, to see if confining everything would help.
It didn’t.