“What took longer than you thought it would?” He pulls off his coat and drops it over my shoulders before sitting next to me on the bench. It smells good. Under the scents that are unique to him, I can smell something familiar. Enough like his brother to cause my heart to pound and twist against my ribcage.
“For one of you to come find me so you can tell me how horrible I am for what I did to Conner.” I haven’t said his name out loud in months and saying it now is hard. Harder than I thought it would be. “To be honest, I thought it would be Tess. Maybe Patrick, but not you. I figured you’d be happy about the way things ended.”
“What are you talking about?” He frowns at me. “Why would I be happy about that?”
“You always hated me.” I have to press my mouth into a thin, hard line to keep from crying. “You never thought I was good enough.”
“I never hated you, Henley.” His face loosens, falls from a frown into something softer. “I hated the way you made him feel. I hated that you made him happy. I was a kid. A selfish, asshole kid who…” He swipes a hand over his features and sighs, pushing memories aside. “I’m not here about Conner.”
Something about the way he says it catches in the back of my throat and pulls. “What is it?” I shake my head. “What happened?”
“It’s Ryan,” he says it to my ear. Can’t seem to look me in the eye. “He’s been hurt.”