Page 121 of The Love You Win

Meeting Griffin’s eyes, I let him see every ounce of the panic in mine. “She loves me?”

“Yeah, brother. She fucking loves you.”

“She’s not using me?”

Griffin reaches over and punches me hard in the arm. “No, you stupid asshole. She was never using you. You know she’s not like that. We all saw it the first time we met her at Skin and Tonic. She’s the real deal, Madds. Once-in-a-lifetime stuff.”

She is. I know he’s right. She is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of woman. The woman. I could comb the globe for someone better and I’d never succeed. Because she’s it for me, and I blew it.

“What have I done?” I choke on the words. It feels like there’s a boulder lodged in my throat.

“You fucked up,” Griffin says. “Badly. The question is, what are you going to do about it now?”

“What can I do?” Hopelessness wraps around me like a shroud. “She’ll never forgive me, man. I ghosted her. Threw her aside like she was trash. I’m worse than her ex.”

“You might be the dumbest fucker on the planet, but you’re not worse than her ex. He never fought for her or tried to make it right. Even when he cornered her in her classroom, he never owned up to hurting her.” Wright’s hazel eyes bore into me. “But you’re going to. You’re going to own up to it. And then you’re going to beg her to forgive you.”

I bark out a laugh. “You make it sound so easy. I doubt she’ll even answer if I call.”

“Maybe, maybe not.” He leans forward. “But we’re past the phone call stage. You screwed up too big, Graves.”

“Then what am I supposed to do?”

“Grovel big. Show her she means more than your pride or saving face. When you screw up big, you apologize big.”

Image after image of Isla spurning my attempts to apologize plays in my mind. Isla slamming the door in my face. Isla dumping coffee over my head. Isla running me over with her car. They get progressively more and more violent and ridiculous with each passing second.

“How in the hell am I supposed to do that?”

For the first time since I walked into his place, Griffin smiles at me. “I’ve got some ideas. You’re lucky I read so many romance novels.”

I don’t even have time to process that little nugget of information before my sister pushes through the door with a box in her arms.

“We’ll brainstorm while we move Mira in.”

My sister looks between us. “What are we brainstorming?”

“How Maddox is going to get Isla back.”

She grins. “It’ll need to involve some form of public humiliation.”

“Obviously,” Griffin replies with an evil grin.

“Great,” I mumble.

But the truth is, I’ll do anything to get Isla back. I fucked up. I hurt her. At the first test of my love, I assumed the worst of her, and I hurt her. Badly.

Public humiliation is the least of what I deserve.

“What exactly do you have in mind?”

fifty-three

ISLA

I’m not sure what I expected to happen after Griffin showed up at my house, unannounced, on Sunday, but it wasn’t this radio silence. Some stupid, hopeful part of me imagined Maddox calling me or showing up at my door immediately after.

But that’s not what’s happened.

---