Page 46 of Whatever Happens

“Can you stay for dinner, too?” Luke asks with hope filled eyes.

“I wish we could,” Lexie tells him. “But your uncle needs to do some work on his arm.”

For a moment, I had forgotten what it was we were doing here. Therapy. Lying low. Torture. I was just enjoying the moment, slipping back into the comfortable place Lexie and I had been only a few days ago.

“We’ll come back, bud,” I assure him as I ruffle his hair.

“Yeah, in like two months.” He pouts, his arms folding across his chest in a huff.

I squat down beside him. “Actually, I’m going to be in town for a while. Lexie, too.”

His face lights up, and the things the sight does to my heart. Nothing I have ever experienced can measure up to this… to him.

I glance over at Lexie.

Not anymore at least.

“He likes you,” I tell Lexie as we climb into my truck.

“I like him. He’s a great kid.”

“Yeah, he just got a shitty deal.”

“He seems to be managing.”

“He shouldn’t have to manage,” I say, anger at Luke’s predicament filling me.

Since his accident I’ve tried not to dwell on the how, the why. It was an accident, plain and simple. A tragic fucking accident that left this poor kid in a wheelchair—permanently.

“You’re right, he shouldn’t.”

“He loves sports. Probably would be pretty damn good at them, but that fucking accident ruined everything.”

I can tell by the look on Lexie’s face she wants to say something but considering our current predicament, won’t.

“Just say it,” I tell her.

“Say what?”

“Whatever it is that’s going on in your head.”

“I just… the way you spoke, I wasn’t sure if you were referring to Luke… or yourself.”

“Luke’s injury is much more severe and much more permanent than mine.”

“True, but you both had things you love taken away from you by an unfortunate accident.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

Spending the day with Lexie eased some of the tension between us. It also made having to live with our reality that much harder. I allowed myself to see her the way I did before I found out the truth, the blatant reminders of why I liked her so much to begin with.

When we got back to the house, Lexie excused herself and went up to her room. After a while, when she didn’t return, I sent her a text asking if she was okay.

Her response said she was, but I knew she wasn’t. Part of me wanted to press her, see if what she was saying was true, but a bigger part of me just wanted to be alone—to think. I was still having a hard time wrapping my head around things. Sure, lying to me was bad, really bad, but at least it makes sense. At least there’s a reason behind it.

The video? Why would Green do that to me? That I don’t fucking understand.

Sitting on the back porch with a beer in my hand, I try to figure out why. Why he would do it? Why me?

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