The Best Mistake - Cookie O'Gorman Page 0,80

I’d always felt a deep connection to Chase, could read him better than any of my other siblings. And right now, he was hurting, not just physically but in his soul. This was all my fault, I thought. I’d gone from having the best night of my life to watching my brother suffer what was possibly one of the biggest blows of his life. It was so unfair. This was the result of my selfishness. Chase was strong, but he’d needed me.

And I wasn’t there.

The weight of that truth crushed me.

When everyone had returned, I excused myself into the hall and sent Honor a quick message saying I was sorry, but I’d have to cancel our date. She responded with, “That’s cool. :) You want to reschedule?”

I didn’t send my response until later that night, but I knew it was the right one.

Archer: Sorry. I don’t want to hurt you, Honor, but my family needs me right now. I think we should take a break.

Honor: Got it, no problem. I hope everything’s okay. I’ll miss you.

I read her message over and over, holding onto those three last words, even as I knew I had to let her go.

Could a person literally die from a broken heart?

I didn’t think so.

Otherwise, I would’ve been DOA a thousand times over.

It had been three weeks, and I still hadn’t recovered from Archer’s rejection. Forget broken. My heart was absolutely wrecked, the bits of it left in pieces on the floor nothing but dust now. It had hurt when I’d received his text weeks ago.

But it took a few days for the news to completely break me.

Weak and humiliating, the truth was it had taken that long for me to really get it. Though I’d never been stupid enough to put my faith in a man before, I’d given it to Archer easily enough. He’d taken more than just my virginity that night. I’d given him everything, my body, my love and my trust, too. Offered all of myself up on a silver platter…

…and he hadn’t wanted me.

It probably would’ve been easier for me to take if I could hate him for it.

But the jerk hadn’t even left me with that.

Charlie, Rose and Emmy had filled me in on all the details of what’d happened that night after we left the bar. How bad the fight had really been—which I knew because the whole thing ended up on the local news—how Chase was hurt and had to stay in the hospital, how no one had been able to reach Archer to tell him the news.

Because he’d been with me.

And now, here I was.

Alone, lying on my bed, still thinking about Archer O’Brien, wishing I could hate him.

But I really just hated myself for not being able to shake this off. I’d known better. I’d gone into this knowing full well that he’d never truly be mine. Archer was always meant for bigger, better things. It was my stupid fault for thinking, even for a minute, that I could have him for more than a night.

At my lowest, I’d even called my mom.

This was how that conversation went.

“Oh Honor,” she said after I’d told her everything, spilled my guts in hopes that she’d actually be a real mother to me again. “I’m so sorry this happened.”

“Thanks, Mom. I—”

“But you’d only known this Archer a few weeks. How could you possibly have fallen in love that quickly?”

I held the phone away from my ear a moment to check…and yep, it was still her.

“I mean, come on,” she added. “What did you expect? From what you said, he’s a superstar college athlete. Guys like that never settle down until much later in life. Take it from me. I know how it is.”

“I know you do,” I said grimly. That was why I had called in the first place, thinking we might be able to bond over shared heartache. How stupid of me.

“Well, at least, you’re young,” she said. “There will be other men. Speaking of, I have to go now. Dave’s calling. Talk later.”

“Bye, Mom.”

And that was it.

Again, it was my bad for expecting anything different, but the way she’d brushed off my feelings still hurt. The sad part was that I didn’t believe her words. Not for a second.

There will be other men?

Maybe for her, I thought. But definitely not for me.

Archer had ruined me just like I knew he would.

A knock on my door broke me out of my thoughts, but I didn’t get up. Or