Page 66 of My Secret Santa Daddies

“Can you two quit it already?” I snap.

Wyatt’s eyebrows shoot up, and Cody looks genuinely taken aback.

“What’s gotten into you, Griff?” Wyatt asks, crossing his arms. “You’ve been walking around here like a bear with a sore paw for days.”

“Maybe because this place still looks like a damn construction zone,”

“Bullshit,” Cody says, shaking his head. “It’s not the lodge that’s got you twisted. It’s Sierra.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“You know exactly what I’m talking about. You’ve been off ever since she left.”

“I’m fine,” I insist, but even I can hear the hollow, false note in my voice. “It’s better this way, anyway.”

Wyatt snorts. “Yeah, you keep telling yourself that. You’re practically a damn ghost without her around.”

“You think I don’t know that?” I finally say, my voice dropping. “You think I don’t feel it every damn minute?”

The admission is out before I can stop it, raw and cutting. I run a hand through my hair, trying to shake off the frustration.

“Look, man,” Wyatt says, his tone softening a bit. “We all miss her and we all sort of fumbled.”

I shake my head, trying to clear my thoughts. "It's not that simple. Sierra and I... we've got a lot of history. A lot of baggage."

"No shit," Cody scoffs. "We all do. But that doesn't mean you just give up."

"I'm not giving up. I'm trying to do what's best for her. For all of us."

Wyatt steps closer, his eyes narrowed. "And you think letting her walk away, letting her think you don't care… that's what's best?"

"She knows I care," I argue, but even as the words leave my mouth, I know they don’t sound convincing.

"Does she? Because from where I'm standing, it looks like you're pushing her away.Again."

His words hit me like a punch to the gut. I want to deny it, to insist that he's wrong. But deep down, I know there's truth in what he's saying. Haven't I done exactly that? Let Sierra believe that I don't want her here, that I'm better off without her?

"Fuck," I mutter. “You guys can’t put all the blame on me.”

“We’re not,” Cody says. “We’re just saying…”

“What, that I should go after her?” I ask, cutting him off. “That I should chase her down and tell her how I feel, like some kind of Hallmark movie? It’s not that damn simple.”

“Why not?” Wyatt asks, hands on his hips. “You gonna tell me you don’t care about her?”

I swallow the denial rising in my throat.

“It doesn’t matter,” I say at last. “None of it matters. She’s gone, and that’s that.”

The words taste like ash in my mouth, but I force myself to believe them anyway.

“Bro. She’s not gone. She’s literally in the same town as us,” Cody groans.

“I told her already. I apologized.”

“When?”

“The morning she left. But I know there’s also shit going on with both of you and her.”

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