Page 72 of Good Time Boyfriend
“I don’t understand. I don’t understand why this happens. Why we do this.”
“I just want to go and kick his ass. To kick Luca’s too. Because he didn’t tell me,” Addison said into the quiet.
“He didn’t tell you about what?” I asked.
“He didn’t tell me about you and Heath.”
“I don’t think Heath would tell them. He wouldn’t want to put any more pressure on them because he’s the big brother.”
“I hate this. I hate this so much. I don’t know how to fix it.”
“Then we kick his ass,” Addison suggested.
“Or maybe we don’t fix it. Maybe we just watch the Cassidy brothers destroy themselves because they’re really good at destroying us.”
With that ominous statement from Paisley, we sat in silence for a while, before Addison pulled out some cheese from the refrigerator and made me eat a little before I realized I needed to leave for my parents’ house.
By the time they left, I was running late, but it didn’t matter. I just needed to get there and find a way through. Heath didn’t love me. If he had, he wouldn’t have pushed me away. I needed to realize that. He was just my first boyfriend.
There was an accident on 70, so I followed traffic towards C470, taking the long way towards the darkening mountains and the setting sun and my parents’ house.
I was exhausted, and I just wanted to get this over with. To make sure that Maureen and the others knew I loved them and that I was sorry for lying.
And then tell them the lie wasn’t quite a lie anymore. Because Heath wasn’t mine.
Love hurt, men sucked, and I was exhausted.
I was going the speed limit, taking the middle lane as I passed a few people going slower than traffic, when the car in front of me did a weird movement. I gripped the steering wheel, holding back a scream as everything seemed to go in slow motion. The Jeep in front of me hit something dark in the middle of the road, and flipped over on its top and skidded, sparks flying everywhere. I jerked the wheel, doing the one thing I knew I shouldn’t, and then I was spinning out on the highway. Thankfully there wasn’t a car next to me. I spun once, twice, and again, and then I skidded off the side of the highway; as the car hit the grass, I flipped. I screamed as the airbags exploded, the sound of crunching metals reached my ears, and then there was nothing.
Chapter 18
Heath
“Okay what crawled up your ass and died, other than the lovely surprise we had a few days ago,” August asked, and I shrugged, looking back to the instructions. We were trying to build a bookshelf for Luca’s office, and as the instructions were in Spanish, I was trying to remember what each word meant. I could have pulled out my phone and used a translation app, but why would I bother doing that? Doing things in the most complicated way possible and wanting to slam my head against the partially erected bookshelf was much easier.
“Well, I got a text from Addison yelling at me, so I think I know what happened,” Luca said, looking at another set of instructions for the table he was putting together.
We loved this furniture place, but for some reason they hadn’t sent the right instructions, and now we were taking far too long to figure out how to build the pieces we’d bought. It should have been intuitive, but honestly, nothing made sense.
Just like in life.
“Did you break up with Devney?” Greer asked, and I turned to look at my sister who was helping Luca.
“What?”
“He did,” Luca answered with a growl.
“What the hell? Stop talking about me behind my back.”
“Right now, we’re talking about you in front of you,” August snapped. “What the hell were you thinking? Devney’s the best thing that’s ever happened to you.”
“So says the man who got married and divorced and didn’t really tell us anything about it.” I could have cut off my own tongue, because I never wanted to hurt my brother like that, and from the flash in August’s eyes, the barb hit the mark.
“Stop, just stop it,” Luca snapped. “Why are we fighting? This isn’t us.”
“No, it’s our lovely parents,” Greer replied.
She threw up her hands and we all stared at her. “What? Why are you surprised I said that? We’re trying to be better at being siblings. You guys moved out here to be near me and start over. And I love you for it. But we don’t talk about the fact that our parents suck. They left us. Sure, I had Mom and you had Dad, but what did that mean? They were too busy squabbling with each other and trying to hurt one another using us, that we got thrown into the fire. I love you guys. I love getting to know you. But I missed all those years, just like you did with me. I’m trying to be open about my relationship with you guys. You know Noah and Ford and call them friends and I love it. But I never even met Paisley when you were married, August. I don’t know why you got married or why you got divorced. And if you’re not ready to say anything about that to us? Then maybe you should talk to somebody. But I’d love to hear. And Luca, you never talk about Ashleigh.”
