Page 21 of Twins For My Bestie's Brother

I push myself up from the table. “I need a drink. Anyone need anything?”

I ignore Melissa and Theo if they said they wanted anything and head over to the bar. Running my hands over my face, I swear to myself, a string of curses. This night is more fucked than I could have imagined.

I steal a look through the open metal doors of the gymnasium. Lily is leaning up against the entry wall, her arms crossed over her chest. Not defiant Lily. Small Lily. Not hard when Will lowers over her, that stupid earring waggling with the passion with which he’s speaking.

Lily can handle herself. I know she can. And she might not take kindly to me inserting myself into her personal life.

But still, something about her posture makes me uneasy.

I order myself a whisky. Need something a bit harder. I don’t take my eyes off Lily, though. To the outside eye, it might look like I’m being a jealous boyfriend. I’m not her boyfriend though. And while, sure, I’m jealous, I’m more worried than anything.

I take my drink off the bar and sip the bitter liquor, thankful the burn takes my mind off the present moment.

Until I see Will reach out and touch Lily’s arm. She tries to pull away, but his hand hardens on her arm. From this far away, I can’t tell just how hard he’s grabbing her. But fuck that, it doesn’t matter.

I’m going over there.

Lily might not be mine. But she’s sure as hell nothis.

Chapter 7

Lily

“You’ve made your point, Lil.”

His touch burns my arm. I don’t like it anymore.

“But now, you should come back home,” Will says. His thumb tracks across my skin. “Okay?”

I narrow my eyes. “What point do you think I was trying to make?”

Will sighs, lips pinched together. He’s really trying to keep his anger contained, which is a far cry from how things used to be. Still, though, I know his meanness too well to believe anything has changed. “You wanted me to miss you. Realize I’ve taken you for granted. Right?”

Maybe that first week after I packed up my things and skipped town. But that’s one week out of six months’ worth of weeks. “The point I was trying to make is that we’re done, Will.”

His cheeks tighten.

“My home isn’t in Seattle. It’s here in Cider Bay. I’m not coming back.”

His head tips forward. “Lily, we’ve been together—”

“I know. A long time. Do you think it waseasyfor me to leave?” Far from it. I weighed my options for months. And all through those months, I slowly disentangled myself from the illusion that was my relationship with Will. By the time I walked away, I was over him. Overit.

“Seemed pretty easy the way you abandoned me.”

I damped down my rage in order to not cause a scene. Normally, I wouldn’t care, but tonight is already so tenuous. I don’t need to feed Tia’s flames, don’t need more rumors spreading about how I ‘ruined’ her reunion or some bullshit. “Will,youabandoned me first.”

He scoffs. “What?”

“The last two years of our relationship, I was the only one in it.”

His hand is starting to pinch. He has anger he doesn’t know how to control, and while he’s never used that anger against me physically, I’ve never been confident one day he wouldn’t. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“You not understanding just makes it obvious you didn’t know what the fuck was happening in our own house. You were . . . you took me for granted.”

Will’s angered expression breaks, sadness under the façade. Or is sadness the façade? He releases me and shoves his hands in his pockets. “Okay. Yeah. I can see that. I’m sorry.”

How many times has he said, ‘I’m sorry’? How many times has he apologized only to do exactly the same things over and over again? “Sorry doesn’t mean much to me anymore,” I say and then move to go.

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