Page 105 of The Forever Rule

“I really want to see this infamous small town that happens to be branded with our name,” Emily said as we waited for the attendant to explain things.

“I really don’t know if it exists,” Isabella said, and I knew she was just teasing me. “I mean, maybe you Photoshopped all those lovely images of that mountain.”

“Yes, I spent all of my free time to add in random Cage landmarks just for you,” I said dryly.

“That sounds like something you would do,” Sophia added with a laugh.

The attendant came over, and the woman with bright purple hair styled in some form of Mohawk, two nose rings, and a full-sleeve tattoo smiled at us.

“Hello there, and welcome to Break It.”

“Thanks for having us,” Emily said, bouncing on her toes.

“Okay, you already went through the waivers before you came, so that’s going to handle the housekeepingbeforehand. When we get into the room you can choose from baseball bats, sledgehammers, crowbars, and even more. You guys also added on a few items so in addition to your own personal crate of things to smash, we have a few special things for you. You’re allowed to throw things against the wall, stomp on them, crash them, do anything you’d like. Isabella here also sent over a playlist, so we’re going to fill the room with the music of your choice and have fun.”

I looked over Isabella and shook my head. “Really?Youpicked a playlist?”

“I can do music.”

“I helped,” Sophia whispered, and Isabella flipped us off.

Laughing, we headed over to the locker room, each of us pulling on coveralls, a face shield, gloves, boots, and loop earplugs so we could still hear the music and each other, but we’d be able to protect our hearing just a bit.

“You’ll have exclusive use of the room, and about an hour and a half just to smash to your heart’s content. Afterward we do have pizza and soft drinks, but I know you have dinner plans.”

“Pizza is always an answer though,” I added, feeling elated to be able to smash something.

“Okay, let’s go through a few more instructions, and then have at it.”

By the time we were ready, I was amped up. Metallica was already blaring through the room, and I bounced on my toes, the others looking as if they were just as wired.

While things seemed to be going well in my life, beingable to get through all the resentment for the past year felt good.

Yes, I was falling in love with a man that made me smile, and put me first when we were together, but I didn’t know what would happen after this. I didn’t know who we would be together. Or, maybe I was always thinking too hard about what that meant. What we meant.

While I loved my job now and my team, I still hated the fact that every once in a while, I had to see news or paperwork over my former team. It just reminded me of every single thing that I had been put through and hadn’t even realized that I had been ignoring. I had lowered myself and my talents in order to fit in the box they had placed me, all because I had been too scared to take a chance. But now here I was, taking all the chances, and I had to hope that I wouldn’t break in the end.

Isabella took the crowbar first, as I picked up a baseball bat, and we each took our weapons, grinning at each other.

“Okay, let’s break things,” Emily said, sounding so much like a cheerleader, it was a little disconcerting.

So…we broke things.

The exhilaration of smashing random objects with other objects shouldn’t feel this good. But I felt like I was on that office movie where they were beating up a printer that annoyed them. In fact, I was enjoying beating up a piece of office equipment, just remembering the fact that my old printer never used to be able to connect to thenetwork. No matter what I did, I swore the printer had it out for me.

Sophia and I took turns with a barrel, though I knew Sophia wasn’t really putting her all into it, she was there because we were there, and I didn’t mind. In fact, it only took about thirty minutes for me to realize we were just having fun laughing with each other, although Isabella kept hitting a little bit harder. I wanted to tell her everything was going to be okay, even though I didn’t know exactly what was going on in my best friend’s heart right then. But she kept smashing things, kept hitting, and when she finally stopped, her shoulders heaving, we all looked at her.

She looked at us and shrugged. “I was just imagining my old office. I’m okay. Promise.”

I raised a brow, and then Isabella blinked away tears so quickly I nearly missed it. “And maybe I thought of Dad.”

Everybody was silent for a moment, as Emily let out a long breath.

“I thought I was the only one.”

“I don’t want to hit him, I just don’t want to think about him,” Sophia added.

“I don’t think about him. Although, I think about Mom more.”

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