Tomboy (The Hartigans #3)(71)

“I don’t know what happened,” she said, letting out a shaky breath. “I was reading all those stories about Zach while I was waiting in line, and I know I shouldn’t, but I scrolled down to the comments, and I guess they got to me. I had a moment of weakness and grabbed the eyeliner.”

“So you’re saying other people’s judgment got to you, even though you know it’s bullshit?” her mom asked as she accepted the Jack and Coke from Lucy.

Fallon nodded, understanding beginning to beat against her skull.

Her mom set down her drink and went on: “Sort of like how Zach told you specifically not to tell his secret and you did anyway because you thought his reason of being embarrassed because of others’ judgments was wrong.”

Oh, ouch. That hurt—probably because it was accurate. “It’s not the same. One is eyeliner. The other is his life. It was all about his pride.”

“Oh, honey.” Her mom took Fallon’s hands in hers, giving them a comforting squeeze. “You’ve always been so very fierce. You’ve known who you were and what you wanted from the beginning. Your first word was ‘no.’ You are a warrior for others; it’s why you became a nurse—to take care of them and fight for them. I love that about you so very much, but it does not mean that you get to take away someone else’s right to make their own decisions, to fight their own battles in the way they want, even if it’s some eye-rolling testosterone BS that they’ll eventually work out.”

“But I was right.” It was a weak argument even to her own ears.

“That may be,” her mom said. “But it still doesn’t give you the right to supersede someone else’s wishes about their own life and how they want to live it. If Zach wanted to let his parents spend the rest of their miserable lives telling lies, then it was his call to make.”

The truth of it all landed like a solid punch to the gut that made it almost impossible to breathe. She pressed her palm to her belly as emotion clogged her throat.

“Shit,” she finally managed to croak out. “I really fucked up.”

“Yes, you did.” Her mom took a sip of her drink. “Also, watch your language.”

Her mind blank and her heart aching, she looked around at the smartest women she knew. “So, what do I do?”

Four concerned faces stared back at her. No one said a damn thing.

Finally, Lucy spoke up. “You go fight to make this right.”

The effervescent bubbles of maybe-this-will-work had her sitting up straight again as she glanced at her mom and three best friends in the world, certainty filling her. “Okay. Somebody call me an Uber.”

“Honey, I think you might need a shower first,” her mom advised wisely.

Yes, first stop, get this mess off her face. Next, go get her man back.





Chapter Twenty-Four


Fallon had washed Zach’s hoodie and it didn’t smell like him anymore. It was just a sweatshirt with a vaguely floral scent. Still, she took one last inhale before walking up to his front door. There was noise coming from inside and a handful of cars—including Caleb’s truck—parked in the usually empty driveway. Steeling herself for whatever would come next, she raised her hand and knocked on the door.

Nothing happened.

She looked back at her Uber driver, who’d been amazing and had given her a pep talk on the way here and a second one when they drove through the open gate. Now he gave her a thumbs-up. That was a good sign, right? The kindness of strangers and all that?

Turning back around, she tried to calm her jangly nerves by clutching the hoodie a little tighter and knocked on the door again.

“I’m coming,” someone hollered from inside.

A few moments later, the door swung open, revealing Caleb holding a bowl of chips and an Xbox remote. His gaze dropped from her face to the hoodie she was holding on to like it was the only thing she had left in the world then back up before lifting an eyebrow in a question.

“Hey, Caleb.” Okay, this wasn’t awkward at all. “Is Zach here?”

He turned his head and hollered behind him. “Blackburn, someone’s here for you.”

Someone? Yeah, that probably was all she was now, just someone. To get past the sharp pain in her chest, she pressed her lips together hard enough to hurt and inhaled a deep breath through her nose to calm her heart.

“Thanks.”

Caleb, usually so chatty, nodded. Really, she couldn’t blame him. If their places were swapped and someone had acted toward one of her girls the way she had toward Zach, she’d be righteously pissed, too.

A noise behind Caleb must have alerted him that Zach was coming because he relaxed his posture before whispering, “Don’t fuck it up” and clearing out of the doorway.

She didn’t have time to freak out about the warning, though, because Zach was standing there in the next heartbeat. It wasn’t fair that he looked so good when she was standing there with her breath probably still smelling of raw cookie dough. Or maybe it was fair. He wasn’t the one who’d betrayed the other’s trust. And no matter how valid her reason may have seemed at the time, that was what she’d done.

“I know you’re mad,” she said, her voice shaky and higher than normal. “You have every right to be. I was wrong. I should never have disregarded your wishes. I hope someday you’ll be able to forgive me. Until then, I brought your hoodie.”