-“
Damon’s laughter cuts me off, his amber eyes seeking mine.
“Do you really think that will happen? That Mason will go through with it?”
If things work out the way I hope they will, no. But who knows what can happen in the next two years?
There’s no point in answering. We could run this topic around in circles for hours, days and weeks and never come up with a reasonable solution.
I should know.
I’ve been doing it for years.
“Just friends,” he mutters, more to himself than me, as if tasting the idea, rolling it over his tongue before struggling to swallow it.
Finally turning to face me, Damon stares at me in a way that drops my heart into my stomach.
“If you hadn’t made that promise to Ezra. If I’d gotten to you first, would you have still walked away?”
Yes...
Only because I’ve never been in love with Damon, even if I loved him in another way. He’s never been the person who makes my body sing. He’s never been the one who crushes my heart between cold, cruel fingers.
“I can’t answer that. All I can say is that I won’t be the type of woman who comes between two brothers. And since that was where we ended up, that was the decision I made.”
“Damn it.”
His crooked grin is back, reminding me of the younger version of himself.
The playful one.
The kid in high school who wasn’t yet so scarred and hardened.
“I can’t hate you for that. You did it for us, but I want to hate you for it.”
Sad laughter shakes my shoulders.
“Thanks?”
Closing the distance between us on three long steps, he wraps his arms around me and rests his chin on top of my head. My body is stiff at first, but eventually melts into the hug.
“Friends,” he says, his jaw moving against my skull. “I’ll take that because I can’t watch you walk away again. Just don’t walk away. Promise me.”
I nod. “Friends. I promise.”
A few seconds pass before he asks, “With benefits?”
“Damon-“
“You can’t blame me for trying. It was fun, Red. Don’t try to claim it wasn’t.”
It was six weeks of fun that somehow ended in disaster.
Letting me go, he steps back and glances at the door.
“I should go. I’m supposed to meet up with the guys and interrogate-“
He cuts that thought off before finishing it, his jaw clenching tight.
It only makes me suspicious.
“You wouldn’t happen to know where Gabe took Ivy, would you?”
The answer is written all over his face, and it happens to be a resounding yes.
“Gabe is with Ivy? Weird. I should go.”
“Damon.”
He’s already opening my door to run away. I race forward and grab his arm before he has the chance. Not because I’m overly concerned for Ivy, she can take care of herself, but because there is one other question I need to ask.
“Why did Ezra tell you about the promise I made him?”
His shoulders tense, several seconds passing before he turns to look at me with guilt rolling behind those amber eyes.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Tell me.”
“Red-“
“Tell me,” I demand, not giving him an inch to wiggle out of this.
Damon leans a shoulder against the doorframe and reaches out to tuck a stray strand of my hair behind my ear. There is so much love in the way he touches me.
“Ezra said we’re done.”
My brows crash together, both pain and confusion sliding in to dance as a toxic cloud inside my head.
“Done?”
“With you. He told me about the promise because he wanted me to see how you’ve been playing us all along. How you’ve been lying. He doesn’t want anything to do with you anymore.”
Pausing, he stares at me with sympathy behind his eyes.
“Ezra might be done, but I’m not. I can still try this friendship thing.”
Done.
Ezra is done.
With me.
With us.
With everything.
Tears sting the backs of my eyes, but I blink to keep them from brimming.
It doesn’t stop my heart my ripping apart, though, doesn’t stop those cold, cruel fingers from squeezing my heart until every drop of blood has leaked out to drown me on the inside.
Damon could have sliced my veins open and doused me in acid, and it would have hurt less than telling me Ezra is walking out of my life without even one word to me about it.
I wrap my arms around my body in an effort to hold myself together. I can’t shatter right here in front of Damon, can’t let on that this news is enough to tear me to shreds.
It can’t be that obvious.
Not in front of him.
“Okay,” I answer,