Page 171 of Break Away
Charm frowned. “What does that mean?”
“Protein powder was shame. Pasta was denial. Peanut butter was hope.”
“Where did you put the coffee?” I asked.
“Trauma.”
Charm nodded. “Reasonable.”
I laughed hard enough that it tipped into crying, and Bliss pulled me back into her arms with a soft, bossy noise.
“Okay,” she murmured into my hair. “Okay, we’ve got you.”
I closed my eyes.
My phone buzzed in Charm’s hand, and all three of us looked down at it. Bliss reached for it before I could and checked the screen.
Her expression changed.
I went cold. “Easton?”
“No.” She turned the phone toward me. “Cade.”
The message preview glowed against the dark screen.
Cade:Is she with you?
Bliss typed back that I was with them and that no boys were coming that night, adding that she had my phone so Cade wouldn’t mistake the message for mine.
Three dots appeared almost immediately.
Cade:Understood, pip. Tell her I’m sorry.
My chest tightened in a different way.
Bliss looked up at me. “He means it.”
“I know.”
Charm took the phone gently from Bliss and passed it to me. “You don’t have to answer.”
I looked at Cade’s name and the apology from the man who had been Easton’s friend first but still understood enough to be sorry for the room. I typed out a thank-you and an apology of my own, but my thumb stalled above the send button.
“Not tonight,” I said.
Bliss took the phone gently from my hand. “Not tonight.”
Charm hooked her arm through mine and started steering me toward the SUV. “We’re leaving your car here.”
“My car is offended.”
“Your car watched you cry for twenty minutes and did nothing. It deserves consequences.”
Bliss grabbed my purse and keys, then locked my car with a decisive click. “We’ll get it tomorrow.”
I looked back at Easton’s building before I could stop myself.
The flickering security light buzzed over the entrance. Rain slid down the brick. Somewhere inside, Easton was alone with his split knuckles, cheap apartment, and every truth I had finally given him too late.
