Page 3 of Unbroken

I retrieved my phone from the floor and turned off all the lights while I gathered the other belongings I needed that were spread throughout my apartment. I was normally organized, but when one part of my life went downhill, the rest of it seemed to follow.

I had remembered to bake the pie, though. And when I pulled it off the counter where it had been cooling, the bottom of the pan was still warm to the touch.

With my hands full, I somehow managed to get downstairs and into my car with little issue. My usual routine was to find one of the several playlists I’d been curating and creating for years. Whichever one fit my mood the best. But there wasn’t a playlist for my mood. So, I started the car and drove to Luke’s house in silence.

TWO

Blakely

You can do it.You can do it. Youhaveto do it, I chanted to myself over and over again as I stared up at the house.

Never had a house felt so intimidating.

“Blakely.” The voice behind me startled me so bad I nearly dropped the pie and the glass dish it was in onto the concrete walkway.

Josh appeared beside me and helped me catch the pie before the worst could happen. He took it from me and appraised me with raised brows.

“It’s not nice to sneak up on people,” I said, smacking him in the arm.

He chuckled and shrugged like he didn’t almost wreck my dessert. “I’m not sure how you didn’t hear my car pull up, or me close the car door, or say your name three times. I wasn’t trying to sneak up on you.”

“Oh,” I said and took a breath. My eyes traveled back to the front of the house, but Josh didn’t let my attention linger too long.

“You okay, Blake? You’re kind of starting to worry me—actually, all of us. You’ve seemed a little…off lately.”

No one had said anything to me, but I would have been surprised if my friendshadn’tnoticed. Josh and I worked together at Murphy’s Law, our favorite bar, and I spent enough time with the rest of them that they would have to be the least perceptive people in the world not to know.

I mustered the best smile I could and waved him off. “Yeah, I’m okay. I just have a lot on my mind right now.”

Rather than keeping my gaze averted or just walking into the damn house, I looked at Josh because that’s what a person in a normal state of mind and without something to hide would have done. It was impossible to miss the concern and questions in his blue eyes. And it was equally impossible to ignore them.

It was evident he wanted to say something else, but his attention darted over my shoulder, and he shook his head. “Let’s go inside. You look like a weirdo standing outside the house like this.”

He didn’t give me an option. He reached back and grabbed my hand as he all but hauled me up the stairs and through the front door.

“Blakely’s being weird,” Josh hollered through the house. I glared at him, but his happy, carefree charm easily dismissed it.

“When is she not?” Amanda said, skipping down the hallway from the kitchen and giving me a hug I so desperately needed. Although it didn’t do much, it was enough to not make me feel like my world wasn’t ending. At least for the time being.

Amanda was quite a bit shorter than my five-foot-ten, so I stooped to wrap my arms around her. She looked cute, with her blond hair in a bun on top of her head and her black-framed glasses propped on her nose. We were best friends, but we were also the opposite of one another.

She was Barbie, and I was Barbie’s black cat stepsister.

We walked farther into the house while Amanda took the pie from Josh and veered right into the kitchen. I continued into theliving room, dropping my purse and coat on a bench, while Amanda yelled that she was going to bring me a drink.

Through the windows at the back of the house, I could see James, Reed, and Luke sitting outside on the patio around a firepit. Josh quickly joined them, but I wasn’t going back out in the cold if I could help it.

And the person I most wanted to see was standing in front of the TV with a beer in one hand and his eyes glued to a football game that I regrettably knew nothing about.

“Hey,” I said quietly, coming to a stop right next to him.

Half a second later, Devon’s arm slid around my back, and he tugged me into his side. I wrapped one arm around his middle, then the other, as I leaned into the hug and the calmness he brought with it.

I tucked my head against his shoulder, and he leaned down, kissing the top of my head and breathing a quiet, “Hey, B.”

It wasn’t often I met someone who made me feel small, but Devon, at six-foot-five, definitely did. He took a sip of his beer and settled his jaw on top of my head. We stood like that for a while until Amanda brought me a hot toddy, and we both sat down on the couch.

“My mom won’t stop talking about you,” he said, and I smiled. It wasn’t one I had to force either.

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