Page 74 of What We Brave
He's right. We both made choices. And now we're all standing in the wreckage.
A couple walks past, laughing about something, completely oblivious. I would do almost anything to trade places with them.
"So what now?" Reid asks. His voice is rough, but he's not retreating. Not folding. He's planted his feet and he's looking at both of us like he's ready to stand here all night if that's what it takes. "What the hell am I supposed to do with this?"
None of us has an answer. We stand there in the cold, surrounded by the distant sounds of people having normal Saturday nights, and I watch Reid try to process not just what happened, but what it means. For us. For all of us. His face moves through something I can't quite track—hurt, anger, betrayal, something else—before landing on a hard, quiet determination.
"I can't..." Reid starts, then stops. Jaw tight. "We can't talk about this here."
Honestly, that's the last thing I expected him to say. Where's the screaming. The calling me names. The banishment? All of that would make more sense than this version of calm he has going on.
Blake nods immediately. "Yeah. We should?—"
"Your place," I say quietly. It's the only logical option. My apartment is too small. Neutral ground doesn't exist for us anymore.
Reid stares at me for a long moment. Then he nods once. Sharp. Decisive.
"Fine. Let's go. We're done with this shit. With fucking secrets. We deal with all of it tonight."
16
REID
The drive back to the house is silent. Blake rides shotgun, Laine in the back. My hands grip the steering wheel so hard my knuckles go white.
We pull into the driveway. The three of us walk to the front door like pallbearers.
Inside, nobody sits down. We stand in the living room in a rough triangle, and it hits me. This is where everything falls apart for good.
"Okay." I cross my arms over my chest because I don't know what else to do with them. Why the hell am I doing this to myself? It's not going to make anything better. "I want to know everything. From the beginning. How did this?—"
"Reid, stop."
Laine's voice cuts through mine. She's pale but steady, and something in her face makes me shut up.
"We can do the whole explanation thing," she says. "I can tell you exactly what happened, and Blake can tell you his side, and we can pick apart every detail until we're all exhausted. But that's not going to fix anything."
"Then what will?" I don't mean for it to come out that harsh. It does anyway.
"I don't know." She wraps her arms around herself. "That's the problem. I don't know if anything can fix this."
Blake hasn't moved from his spot near the door. Like he's ready to bolt if things get ugly. Smart, probably. He fucking betrayed me. Again.
Though Laine's not mine anymore. Maybe never again.
I'm going to throw up.
"The thing is..." Laine takes a breath. "My feelings are a mess. I'm not going to stand here and tell you I don't feel something for Blake, because that would be a lie. But I don't even know what those feelings are. They're confused and complicated and honestly, they scare the heck out of me."
She has feelings for Blake. Cool. Great. Did not have that on my bingo card.
I want to ask if she still loves me. The question is sitting right there on my tongue like a live wire, and I can't make myself bite down on it because what if she says no? What if she doesn't?
"What I do know," she continues, "is that we've all been pretending this was going to work out somehow. That we could just... figure it out. Find some magical solution where nobody gets hurt."
"There's no version of this where nobody gets hurt," Blake says quietly. First words he's spoken since we got here.
"Exactly." Laine looks between us. "I've been thinking about this constantly. Running through every possible scenario. And you know what I keep coming back to?"
