Unbreakable(59)

She stares up at me, her eyes solemn. “Me, too,” she whispers. “I feel like I’m falling apart.” She covers her face with her gloved hands and takes a deep breath. “I can’t do this. I have to go.”

“Just a few more minutes. Please.” I’m not ready to let her go yet. Not like this.

“Why? It’s not going to solve anything.” Another sob escapes her, and my heart breaks all over again. “You made it very clear to me that all we had was a hookup, remember? So what was that just now? Are you just trying to ‘get me out of your system’ again? I have no idea what’s going on in your head or your heart, Will, but know this: I have feelings for you. Real feelings, okay? I had them before you ever even kissed me. Before we ever slept together. So I didn’t just lose my best friend that night at the cottage. I lost the man I fell head-over-heels for.”

I draw in a sharp breath and squeeze my eyes shut. This is all I’ve ever wanted to hear, but it’s wrapped in so much pain and hurt that I don’t even know what to do with it.

I take a step toward her. “Em—”

“No,” she says firmly and holds up a hand. “You need to figure out what you want from me. Then we can talk. And if you don’t want me the same way that I want you, then I promise I’ll find a way to deal with it if you ever want to be friends again. But I can’t do this with you right now. I’m sorry.”

Before I can blink, she dashes down the alleyway and disappears from view.

I sag back against the cold brick wall, completely overwhelmed and emotionally drained.

I knew she was physically attracted to me, and I knew she wasn’t ready for the sex to come to an end. But I didn’t know she had real, genuine feelings for me. Feelings that went beyond our close friendship.

Or maybe deep down I did know, but I was too f*cking afraid to acknowledge it. Admitting that to myself would have made it impossible for me to walk away.

All I know is that if I don’t do something soon, I’m going to lose her before I ever get a chance to have her. I’ve lost way too much in my life already to allow it to happen again. I need to fix this now.

Dylan and Axel walk into the alleyway and stop short when they see me.

“Hey,” Axel says, his eyebrows raised. “We just wanted to check on you. The girls left in a hurry. Emmy didn’t look too hot.” He frowns. “Mav, are you all right?”

“No, I’m not,” I mutter, yanking my toque down over my messy hair. “Where’s Sully right now?”

“Probably at home,” Dylan replies.

I pull my keys from my coat pocket. “Good. I need to talk to him. I’ll see you guys later.”

Axel grabs me by the arm. “Will, I don’t think going over there is a good idea.”

“You know what? I don’t care. He’s going to talk to me, or we’re going to beat each other to a bloody pulp. One way or another, this bullshit ends tonight.”

Axel and Dylan exchange nervous glances.

“Want us to go with you?” Dylan asks.

“No. I need to do this alone.”

Axel gives me a long, hard look. “Does Emmy mean this much to you, Mav? Is she worth all of this?”

I nod curtly. “She means f*cking everything to me, okay?”

“All right, then.” Axel claps me on the back. “Go fight for your girl.”

Dylan gives me a shove as I walk past him. “Text us later and let us know you’re alive, Romeo.”

Axel snorts with laughter, and I give them both the finger as I walk toward the parking lot.

“Actually, you might want to text Sully later,” I call over my shoulder. “He’s the one you should be worried about.”

Tonight, I’m not backing down. Sully’s going to listen to me whether he wants to or not.





Chapter Twenty-Five





WILL




When I arrive at Sully’s condo, I manage to catch the front door as an older woman exits the building. This means he doesn’t have to buzz me up, which he’d never do anyway.

During the elevator ride up to the eighteenth floor, I pace back and forth. There’s absolutely no way to predict how this will go down, but I hope I can reach the part of him that remembers how tight we were. How tight we can still be, if he can only get past all of this.

I swallow down the acid rising in my throat and knock.

“Yeah, yeah, hold up,” Sully calls. I hear footsteps shuffle across the hardwood floor. Then: “You’ve gotta be f*cking kidding me.”

He throws open the front door and fixes me with a glare. “What the ever loving f*ck do you want, Maverick?”

“You gonna let me in?”

“Oh, by all means,” he says sarcastically. He sweeps his arm out in an elaborate gesture. “Please, come inside my condo. I mean, you’ve already come inside of my sister, right?”

“Don’t ever say shit like that to me when it comes to Emmy. Do you understand me, Sully?” My voice holds an unmistakable warning. “Your insult might be meant for me, but it’s completely f*cking disrespectful to her.”

Sully gives me a long hard look, but damn if I don’t see a tiny spark of admiration in his eyes. Besides, if those words had come out of anyone else’s mouth but his own, he would have belted them right in the jaw, and he knows it.