Page 34 of When We Are Falling

Blake shakes her head, smiling. “You’re pretty convincing, you know that?”

“Let’s add that to my list of talents. Come on. Let’s just enjoy getting to know each other better. No closing off opportunities.”

I take another sip of my drink then reach out, taking her hand in mine, the simple touch electrifying. To my surprise, she doesn’t pull away.

Instead, her fingers tighten around mine. A glance at me before her gaze ticks away. “I don’t know what this is between us, but it’s nice having you around. And if I’m honest, it’s been pretty hot between us, too.”

“We don’t need to call it a relationship or anything else,” I reply. “We’re just two old friends enjoying one another’s company. Seeing where things go.”

A playful smirk tugs at her lips. “I’m not sure old friends give one another Earth shattering orgasms.”

We both laugh.

“Seriously though, thank you for being there for me. This is a stressful time for all of us. You’re a good friend. But please respect my boundaries.”

“I love boundaries.”

“I’m serious. I’m not looking for a knight in shining armor, and I’m definitely not looking for a relationship.”

“I understand. Let’s just see where it goes, yeah?”

“I’d like that. I haven’t had someone just to hang out with like this since Danny.”

Blake’s mention of Danny slips into the conversation like a ghost. Grief tightens its grip around my heart, a sudden, profound ache for my old friend.

I tighten my hold on Blake’s hand, and for a moment, my emotions collide in a painful, bittersweet embrace. Danny’s memory lingers between us, and I force a breath through the ache in my chest.

Chapter 16

Ethan

Blakeand I sit at the bar, our hands intertwined. Her mention of Danny casts a shadow over our conversation, and I sit with my grief for a moment, letting it wash over me, and it hurts like hell.

My grief is like a living thing, pulsing and throbbing with every beat of my heart, impossible to ignore or escape when it hits. So I let it consume me for just a moment, memories of Danny flooding my mind. He used to be a firefighter alongside Patrick, and he died after going back into a house fire to rescue the family dog.

He went in without a second thought. That’s just who he was. Always putting others first, always so damn brave. The dog survived, but the firefighter didn’t make it. Life’s a bitch that way.

Another memory of Danny surfaces—those afternoons after school when we’d head straight to the field with a couple of gloves, a bat and a ball. We’d play until the sun dipped low,laughing, trash-talking, just two kids out on that field, all my other worries gone.

For me, it was an escape from my two homes, a break from the tension that always hung in the air, but for Danny, it was everything. He was obsessed with baseball, knew stats for every player, collected cards like they were rare treasures. I can still see the way his face lit up when he’d pull a signed ball out of his collection.

The memory is bittersweet. Danny loved baseball like nothing else, and somehow the memory of him feels just as alive as ever.

His integrity, his heroism, his quirked smile, and that endless positivity. He was a good person, one of the best, and he didn’t deserve to die the way he did. Life is just fucking unfair sometimes.

Blake’s grip tightens on my hand. “Are you okay?” Her eyes search mine.

I hesitate briefly, the prickly weight of my words lodging in my throat. But I know that Blake, out of everyone, will understand. She lost Danny too.

“I miss him. He was such a good guy. The best.”

Her voice is quiet, almost a whisper. “Me too.”

“I haven’t always dealt with his death in the best way. I guess I haven’t... I haven’t grieved the way people expected me to.”

She nods like she gets it, and I keep talking, saying out loud the words that have never been spoken before. “It’s driven a wedge between me and some of the guys. Especially Patrick. He thinks I don’t care as much as him, but it’s just, I’ve never been one of those people who has all my emotions out there in the open.”

Her eyes soften, the understanding in her gaze pulling at something deep inside me. “I get it. After Danny died, I didn’t know if I’d even survive those first few months. I wason autopilot, just going through the motions. People probably thought I was coping pretty well, but inside, my soul was dying.”

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