Written with You (The Regret Duet #2)(6)

That was all about me.

“Is…that okay?” she stammered out.

“Yeah. Shit. I’m sorry,” I ground out around the knot in my throat. “I misread that situation.” I swayed my head from side to side. “Ya know. Assumption. Making an ass out of you and me and all.”

She took a step toward me, my body igniting at her proximity. “What’d you assume?”

I could have lied. But not to her.

Hooking her around the hips, I dragged her to me. “I thought you were saying goodbye.”

“What?”

“I know. I know. It was stupid, but it felt real. And…” You’re under my skin. “I overreacted. It’s been a long day. I slept for shit last night. There was this insatiable woman who kept me up late.”

I expected a laugh.

What I got was a vow.

“I will never leave her, Caven.” She held my gaze with an unfettered determination. “I don’t care what it takes. What it cost me physically or emotionally. And I don’t give a damn who tries to stand in my way. When it comes to Rosalee, goodbye is not a word in my vocabulary. She’s my family and I love her. So you can bury that assumption four years in the past where it belongs.” And then she was gone. Head held high, marching down the stairs, taking Rosalee’s hand before hitting the back door.

True to her word, she stayed long enough to eat cake and gush over some painted rocks with Q-tip legs that Rosalee claimed were llamas. She laughed with Jenn while avoiding Trent’s scrutiny, and she’d done it so fearlessly that I couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride.

I didn’t know what had happened on the deck between her and Trent.

And I didn’t know what had changed while we had been in my bedroom.

But as she climbed into her car while blowing kisses to Rosalee, I felt like I was watching an entirely different woman.





WILLOW



Seven months earlier…



My bedroom was pitch black as I stared up at my ceiling fan. The large blades cut through the humid Puerto Rico air as waves crashed in the distance. My secluded home wasn’t on the beach, but late at night, if I opened my windows, the dull roar of the ocean would echo against my walls.

For all the years I’d been living there, the peace and tranquility of those waves breaking on the shore had eased my troubled soul.

Though, for the last two weeks, they had been nothing more than background noise to my turbulent mind.

It had been two weeks since I’d found out about Keira.

Two weeks since Hadley had taken off with my purse and car.

Two weeks of wallowing and trying to convince myself to climb out of bed.

I lived in the seconds. One emotion. One tick of the clock.

But when you were all alone, did time even matter?

I had a good life, though I would have loved it a hell of a lot more with a family to share it with. Hadley was all I had left, and I didn’t know how to help her anymore. I’d sworn I would fight for her. It’s what my parents would have wanted. But I was at war with a ghost.

Since I’d come home, I’d read her journals cover to cover more times than I would ever admit. There had to be an answer in those pages of how I could save her. But with every sentence, her blistering pain seeped from the words, scorching me to the core.

How had I not known how bad things had gotten for her?

I’d witnessed her struggle with drugs, but the cutting and multiple suicide attempts were news to me.

I told myself not to give in to the anger, but there was a time when Hadley and I had shared everything. In those journals, she was a stranger to me. The fa?ade she showed me was nothing more than an attempt to blend into nothingness.

After two weeks of tossing and turning, my brain desperately needed a break.

But there was no sleep to be found. I had to go back. I had to try.

I had to…

The light to my bedroom suddenly flashed on.

Bolting upright, I threw my arm up to block the light. It was only the sound of her voice that kept me from having a heart attack.

“Are you fucking kidding me? Are you fucking kidding me!” Beth roared. There was a crash across my room as the vase I’d filled with shells I’d found on the beach shattered against the wall. “I’ve been calling you for fucking weeks and you’ve been hiding out here? Not answering your goddamn phone.”

Oh-kay. So, Beth was pissed.

Pissed enough to hop onto a plane to Puerto Rico to give me hell. Surprise visits weren’t unusual when you lived in paradise, but the screaming was new.

“Relax. It was two calls. I didn’t feel like talking to anyone.”

“What is wrong with you!” Her voice cracked as her rage gave way to a sob.

Beth didn’t cry.

Beth was an emotional rock who had carried me through the darkest nights when the demons came calling.

The sound of her anguish was like being struck by lightning.

Something had happened.

Something terrible had happened.

And there was only one person left the world could take from me.

Dropping my arm as my eyes adjusted to sudden illumination, I shot to my feet. “What’s wrong?”

She stumbled backward, the color draining from her face as her mouth gaped. “Wha—”