Love's Cruel Redemption (The Ghost Bird #12)(120)

Liam got up and walked around the coffee table. He inspected the fireplace then bent down to a collection of logs set off to the side and sorted through them. “Come here a minute and help me with this.”

Nathan went to him, standing nearby, and when Liam asked for kindling, Nathan handed it to him.

Liam lit the fire, using a long match to get the kindling going. He monitored it while it was starting up. “You know, we made mistakes starting out. Bad ones.”

“You did?”

He nodded. “We tried to keep it from her. But when we told her how we felt, we all expected she’d pick one. Some of us were waiting for it. We did it the opposite of how you were talking. We assumed she wouldn’t accept the idea, and that she’d pick one. But we told her we wanted to stay together. She didn’t believe us.”

“But she still ended up with you all together?”

“She tried everything to get us to change our minds,” he said. “She thought it was selfish of her to have so many of us devoted to her. We couldn’t convince her we wanted this. We were dumb, too. We sent her on a date with someone outside the group once.”

Nathan exhaled loudly. “Why?”

“I think we were trying to convince ourselves she could date anyone she wanted. Or maybe we were punishing ourselves.” He left the fireplace lit and turned to him. The glow of the flames dancing around his face, the light wrinkles next to his eyes, and the course hairs grown out against his face creating some shadow. “I don’t even remember any more. We read all the books we were supposed to for a situation like ours, and it didn’t fit us at all. They were telling us to date, and then telling her to date everyone she wanted. Free love and all that shit. That’s not what we wanted at all.”

“I don’t think Sang would date anyone else,” Nathan said.

“I don’t want you to try. Not if that’s not what you want.” Liam put a hand on his shoulder supportively. “Listen, you all do need to talk to us. Because we can tell you all the stupid stuff we’ve done, and why it was stupid. And...maybe you won’t have to go through this alone like we did. Like when we finally told the Academy. Because you know you have to tell them. Sooner or later.”

“We know,” Nathan said. “We were hoping for later. When we were sure.”

“You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t sure.” He smirked. “You aren’t the first team who came through that door trying to get a bird on a dog team, and not understanding why they were having relationship problems. The Academy sets up rules the way they do for reasons far wiser than we’d like to believe.”

“We aren’t following to rules.”

“They aren’t set in stone,” he said. “You know that. Not every rule works for every team. Sometimes you have to just do what’s right and see where you land. Have the Academy adjust to you, not you adjust to anyone else.”

“Does that work with telling your friends? Family?”

“Not all of us have to worry about that,” he said, his face hardening. “Lily and I...we don’t have any. None we want to be in contact with, anyway. The others we lied to. And we’ll continue to lie for the rest of our lives.”

“You’d do that?”

Liam scratched at the coarse hair around his chin and shrugged. “Who else needs to know about your real life? You’ll lie about the Academy. What matters is, you don’t lie to each other. You keep communication open. Always.”

Nathan turned to the fire, allowing the flames to dazzle his attention. He hadn’t realized how cool the room was until the fire started warming his body. “This won’t matter if she doesn’t forgive me.”

“I’ve a feeling she hasn’t been sitting idly by,” he said. He pulled a phone from his pocket. “I know Lily would be worried about me. Let me send word about where you are. Let her come to you.”

“Now?”

“Better than waiting,” he said. “Don’t make her wait to know how you feel. Don’t torture her like this.”

He was right. Nathan nodded to him, his heart speeding up again, assuming Liam would get word back with questions. And he was a little more than concerned that they might ignore him completely, that they’d shun him after what happened.

Liam only waited a few minutes when his phone lit up. It buzzed shortly with a message. “She’s on the way.” He put the phone in his pocket again. “Let’s get you cleaned up before she gets here. Someone might have some clothes that will fit.”

Nathan absently scratched at his wrist, unsure about what he would say to her, but agreed that he needed to not be so tattered looking when she arrived.

Hopefully she wasn’t coming to yell at him, upset about it all.

Hopefully he hadn’t damaged all of this beyond repair.





Where You Go, My Heart Follows




Sang

––––––––

For hours, we searched. Nathan was all I could think about. None of the guys could console me. Once we’d realized he’d disappeared, I couldn’t do anything except look for him.

The others had done the same.

I was still with Victor and Luke, downtown near Victor’s house. There was hope he went to Victor’s given everyone else was on the other side of town.