Page 108 of Break My Heart
‘Was that why you took off after the competition?’
‘No, I was trying to catch Gina before she left. I wanted to congratulate her.’
‘Does she know it was Wade posting all that shit?’
‘No, and I don’t think I should tell her. The asshole used my computer. Gina’s not going to believe I wasn’t involved if those posts were written from my own damn computer.’
‘She might believe you if you believed her about not still being with her ex.’
‘Nick, I know you think Gina’s it for me, and maybe she is, but it’s too late. She’s leaving.’
‘It’s never too late. Look at Lyndsay and me. I never thought I’d see her again after high school. And when I did, I never in a million years thought she’d go out with me. And now look at us. We’re engaged.’
‘It’s different with Gina and me. We don’t have the history Lyndsay and you have. Going to camp together isn’t the same as growing up together.’
‘Just tell her how you feel. Tell her you don’t want her to go. If she still decides to leave, then fine, but at least you won’t spend therest of your life wondering what might’ve happened if you’d tried to get her to stay.’
‘I don’t have the best track record of getting women to stay.’
‘Kendall leaving had nothing to do with you. That was her needing to get out of this town and do something different. It’s the same thing I did. I left because I was convinced there was something better out there that I was missing. It isn’t the same for Gina. She’s not running from Haydon Falls. She’s leaving because she doesn’t think she has any other options.’
‘She doesn’t. If G’s closes, there’s no reason for her to stay.’
‘You’re a reason. So are Mom and Dad, Callie, Lyndsay, Jason, Brody. You ever watch Gina when she’s around our family? How happy she looks?’
‘It’s because she didn’t really have a family growing up. She’s kind of adopted ours.’
‘Which she’ll lose if she leaves. Despite whatever she told you, she doesn’t want to go, but she doesn’t think you want her to stay. And if she doesn’t have you, then you’re right, there’s no reason for her to stick around.’
Someone knocks on the back door. ‘Sawyer? You in there?’
‘I need to go,’ I tell Nick. ‘Someone’s at the door.’
‘Okay. Talk to ya later.’
As I’m walking to the door, the person knocks on it again. ‘Sawyer!’
Opening the door, I see Matt standing there. ‘What’s going on?’
He comes inside. ‘Someone trashed G’s. I just drove by there as the cops arrived.’
‘What do you mean they trashed it?’
‘The windows are broken. The tables and chairs are tossed all over the parking lot, all busted up. There’s spray paint all over the building.’
‘Fuck.’ I race to my office to grab my keys.
Matt races after me. ‘What are you going to do?’
‘Go over there. I need to help her. I need to do something.’
‘I thought you two weren’t together anymore.’
‘We’re not, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about her.’ I race back to the door with Matt following beside me. ‘This shouldn’t be happening. We don’t do shit like this in Haydon Falls.’
‘I thought the same thing,’ Matt says as we go out to the parking lot. ‘Maybe it was someone from another town.’
‘I know exactly who it was,’ I say through gritted teeth as I imagine Wade smashing in the windows. How did he have time to do it? He left here a few minutes ago and G’s is on the outskirts of town.
