He ignores me. “A shirt then.Nota t-shirt.”
“Don’t try to change me, big brother.”
“And dress shoes.”
“Many have tried and failed.”
He keeps ignoring me. “With socks.”
“Jesus.” I frown. “What kind of people you hanging with that don’t wear socks with shoes?”
“People with smelly feet apparently.”
My lips twitch. “Fine. I’ll wear socks and a shirt. No dress pants though. My boys need room to breathe.”
“Well if mine can, you can rest assured that yours can too. But you can keep your jeans if you like,” a pause, then, “littlebrother.”
A surprise laugh bursts out of me. “Did you just crack a joke? Adirtyjoke?”
I swear I can feel his amusement, his small smile even, through the phone. Then, “I’ll see you Monday. And Reign,” he sighs before adding, “you won’t regret this.”
And then, he’s gone.
Good thing too because I came this close.
To tell him thathewill.
He will regret this.
Because he was right. There’s no guarantee that if he does all these things for me, I’ll stay until next year. And I won’t. I have no intention of staying.
I have every intention of going back on my word.
Because I’m going to leave.
After I’ve fixed things.
After I’ve brought Lucas back from the edge of destruction and after I’ve put her where she belongs — with him — I’m going to take off.
I’m going to leave this town, college, fucking soccer, everything behind.
Because I’m a bandit, aren’t I?
A bandit who steals things.
Who stole their love once.
So it’s best if I leave and go so far away that I won’t do it again.
Stealherfrom him.
My best friend’s ex-girlfriend.
CHAPTERSIXTEEN
This is hard.
I knew it would be but I didn’t know how much.