Page 108 of Beneath the Stands (Sugarlake 2)

She spins, her eyes icy.

My fingers tap against the outside of my thigh. “You don’t understand about Becca. It’s not… we aren’t… just go easy on her, okay? You’re the best thing in her life, and she’d be devastated to lose you.”

Lee cocks her head. “You sure seem to know an awful lot about my best friend, Eli.”

I blow out a breath, grief coating my heart, heavy and thick, making it sluggish.

I do know things about Becca.

I know about the spot behind her ear. The one I’d always kiss because I loved the way it made her moan. I know she has twenty-seven freckles along the bridge of her nose, and that I would have spent the rest of my life tracing every single one while she slept, in awe of her beauty.

I know that I have loved her—every day—even in the darkest moments of my pain.

But I don’t know this Becca. The one who’s so afraid of her shine that she cowers in her parents’ shade. I don’t know how, after all this time, she can claim to love me, to have always loved me, but still run away when things get hard.

I don’t know this woman, and maybe that means I never really did.

I shake my head. “No. I don’t know her at all.”

Lee’s gaze pierces my chest with its intensity, but it doesn’t last for long. She blinks once and turns, walking out the door.

I follow behind, replaying the memory of Becca’s “I love yous” and licking her taste from my lips. My muscles strain with the need to run and find her. Finish whatever it is we started before it’s too late and she leaves for good. But I tamp down the urge because even if I could forgive her, I’m not sure I should.

Becca isn’t meant to be mine. I think she’s meant to be a lesson.

I’ve learned we don’t always get what we want—what we think we need. We just survive, trying like hell to be better than we were the day before, hoping to ignore the darkness that looms in our heart.

I spot Sarah and head that way, eager to leave quickly and hunt down Pops. My chest twinges when I reach her, guilt sneaking in through my cracks and reminding me that I left her alone while I fucked another woman.

Except Becca isn’t another woman.

She’s the goddamn sun.

I shake off the thought. “Hey, you ready to go?”

Sarah nods, the spark that flared earlier tonight when she claimed to still be the “lucky lady” dying from her eyes. When we walk out those doors, the curtain is pulled on our relationship for good, and even though we both know it’s for the best, it still hurts.

I shouldn’t have let us pretend tonight. It did nothing except muddy the waters. Truthfully, I didn’t mean to put on such a show, but when Becca walked up with her body molded to the side of another man, I grabbed Sarah around the waist before I could think, pulling her into me and leaning on her like a crutch. Using her to keep me from tearing Jax’s arms from his body for daring to touch Becca’s skin.

“Is your sister okay?” Sarah asks.

My lips pull down. “Why would you ask that?”

She points behind me, and I twist to look. I find Lee in front of the bar, phone up to her ear and her face drained of color. Her hand shoots to Chase’s arm and even from across the room I can see the tightness in her grasp.

Something’s wrong.

My legs are taking me over there before I can think twice.

“Lee, what’s wrong?”

She stares up at me, her bottom lip trembling. “Daddy was in an accident.”

My organs shift from the punch to my gut, my lungs collapsing as I struggle for breath.

Not again.

“Is he… I mean…” I swallow. “Is he okay?”

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