Page 22 of Soaring and Steadfast

Her breath hitched.

And then, barely above a whisper—disbelieving, broken?—

“This can’t be happening.”

And his heart stopped.

CHAPTER SEVEN

LILA

This can’t be happening.

Lila’s breath hitched, her heart thundering in her chest as she turned away from the man who had unraveled her with a single glance. The moment she had walked into the room, she had felt him—like a static charge in the air, crackling, waiting to spark. His dark wavy hair, the way he carried himself, that raw, unguarded look on his face—it all reached for something buried deep inside her, something she had locked away so tightly it shouldn’t be able to stir.

And yet, here she was.

She clenched her jaw, hugging Stephanie tightly, clinging to the familiar warmth of her friend as if that alone could keep her from spiraling. She hadn’t seen Stephanie in months, not since she moved away, not since she started over. And yet, one look at him had her slipping, faltering in the resolve she had sworn would never waver.

I’m never going to drink again.

I’m never going to let some man control my life again.

I’m never going to fall in love ever again.

She had built her world around those three promises, bracing herself against their weight because they were the only things that kept her from drowning. It had been easy, really. Simple. She had severed ties with anything that could tempt her, avoided places that whispered of danger, and steered clear of moments that felt like possibilities. Love was something she watched in movies—fictional, distant, safe. It wasn’t for her.

And yet, she had allowed herself one indulgence. One small, innocent thing that hadn’t seemed dangerous at the time.

Louis.

The friend who had kept her company in the dead of night. The one who had made her laugh when she felt like crying, who had listened when she spilled her most humiliating, unfiltered thoughts. The man she had trusted with every broken piece of herself.

And he was standing behind her.

“Lila…” His voice was hoarse, raw in a way that scraped against her heart. “I swear, I had no idea.”

Her breath shuddered out of her.

He can’t be Louis.

He can’t.

“You need to leave,” she whispered, the words barely forming around the lump in her throat. She felt fragile, exposed in a way that made her ache—like an old wound ripped open by the gentlest of touches. He hadn’t laid a hand on her, and yet it felt as though he had shattered something delicate inside her just by being here.

“Please don’t turn away,” he pleaded. There was desperation in his voice, a quiet kind of devastation that made her stomach knot painfully. “I know you’ve got to be thinking the worst right now, but I promise that I didn’t know who you were or that this was anything more than a couple of friends talking.”

She turned sharply, willing herself to be strong, to keep her walls high. But she couldn’t meet his eyes—not when she knew what she would find there. Instead, her gaze caught on his outstretched hand, hovering between them like a bridge neither of them knew how to cross. It was trembling.

If she touched him, she would break.

“If you need me to go, I will,” he said, the words thick with emotion. “But don’t run from me or our friendship. I still want those late-night texts because they make me feel better on the inside. I enjoy talking to you…” His voice trailed off, the unspoken question lingering between them.

Did you enjoy talking to me, too?

She squeezed her arms tighter around herself, a shield against everything she didn’t want to feel. “I’ve enjoyed our texts,” she admitted, her voice barely above a whisper. “I could have gone on like that forever without… this.”

A pained silence stretched between them.

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