Page 95 of Follow Your Bliss

“You might have some trauma. Have you thought about seeing a therapist?”

“I went for a long time after Kasey. But maybe I need to go back.”

She grinned. “So, you and Rose, huh? Lately, you’ve been the happiest, most Jason-like you’ve been in literal years. We’ve all noticed it, but none of us figured it out. Well,” she amended. “I had suspicions.”

I put my face in my hands. “Me and Rose. It’s—it was so good. I love her so goddamn much. We were really partners. We worked so well together.” I paused. “We played so well together. We supported each other, and she trusted that I would make good decisions.”

“Stop talking about her in the past tense. You had a fight, is all. Do you know how many fights Brad and I have had?” She gestured to my phone, which I’d just checked for the thousandth time since she’d been here. “Did you try calling her?”

I shook my head. “I texted her, but she hasn’t written back.”

“Maybe give her some time to cool off. In the meantime, you know who you have to talk to, huh?”

I shook my head vehemently. “I’m not talking to Mom.”

She shook my knee. “You dumb little brother. Not wanting to talk to Mom is the whole reason Rose left. If you want her back—I assume you want her back?”

“Yeah, more than anything.”

“Then you have to pick Door Number Three, the ‘stand up to Mom and talk to her about big things’ option you didn’t take last time.”

“But how do I let go of this guilt? I’m just going to let her railroad me again.”

“Let her cool off, and talk to her at the rehearsal. Rose’ll be there too, and it’ll be a chance for the three of you to be adults and work it out.”

“I can’t bring that kind of drama to your wedding rehearsal.”

“Jason, there’s gonna be drama with both of them there. You might as well let me set a place card for it. It’ll make me feel more in charge.” She smiled, but I couldn’t.

“But what if she never gives Rose a chance?”

She shrugged with her hands up on either side of her head. “I don’t have a crystal ball. But Rose is awesome. Mom’ll come around when she sees how happy you are and that Rose isn’t trying to keep you away from us. Just because they don’t get along immediately doesn’t mean they won’t ever get along. The important thing is that you’re here, you’re talking to each other, and you’re trying. That’s all she wants. That’s all any of us want.”

I laughed without humor. “You make all of this sound so easy, but it’s not. The way I treated Rose, she’ll never talk to me again.”

Becca ruffled my hair. “You don’t know that. Love always finds a way.”

If Rose really loved me, that might be true. But did she?

Chapter 16

A Coward and a Dumbass

Rose

I wanted Jason. But I didn’twantto want him. The whole Uber ride, I reminded myself of all the reasons I would never go back.

He got mad at you for being yourself in what he told you was your home. He wouldn’t stand up for you. He was embarrassed of you. He couldn’t bring himself to say he was serious about you when it really counted. You’re not heartbroken, you’re pissed.

The driver pulled away as I walked up the sidewalk to Heather’s real-life dream house: a gorgeous, old New Orleans mansion. I knocked and waited. If she and Abby weren’t home, that would be what I got for not calling first.

Just as I was pulling out my phone to call, Abby appeared through the glass door. Her gaze darted to my pile of things and back to me.

She yelled for Heather as she opened the door. “Rose! What happened?” She threw her arms around me. Heather joined us, throwing her arms around me, too.

I sobbed out Jason’s name as I hugged them back. They took all my stuff from me, brought me over to the velvet sofa in the living room, and sank down on either side of me.

“I’m sorry to bust up in your house, but I didn’t want to go to my mom’s,” I said. “And since I stupidly got involved with my landlord, and there’s a tree-sized hole in the roof over my bedroom, I couldn’t stay there. Not with him.”

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