“You make it sound so simple. When I talked to Bash earlier today, he did, too.”

She shrugs. “Maybe that’s because it is that simple.”

23

FLYNN

Trying to drown myself in bourbon doesn’t seem to be working. Even my third glass of the warm, spicy alcohol can’t help me forget what went down last night. I don’t know that anything can.

Nor do I know what to make of what happened at the cemetery. I asked for a sign, and the damn flower literally hit me. One would think there isn’t anything clearer than that, yet I don’t know what it’s telling me to do.

Apologize?

I already did apologize for not telling her what was going on, but the fact that she can’t understand why I couldn’t tell her and that I was protecting her still eats away at me.

Forgive her for what she said? How she judges me?

Her words won’t leave my head. They’ve been echoing around in there so loudly that I wasn’t able to concentrate on anything today and blew off all my phone calls from clients before I left early to head to the cemetery.

Any capacity to interact with other humans left me when I walked out of Rachel’s door last night.

I can’t keep going like this, but I’m not ready to face her yet. Not when I don’t know what to do or say. I can’t be with her if she’s pissed about something I did before we were together and can’t move past it.

We’re at a stalemate. And I’m not sure how to break it.

The sound of the key in the lock sends a shiver of panic through me. I freeze and watch the door with my glass raised to my lips. I’m not ready to see her. To confront what was said and all the feelings swirling through me.

Only when it pushes open, the green eyes and flowing caramel hair I’m hoping to see despite my reservations aren’t there. Instead, Cade offers me a cocky grin.

“You fucker.” I down a gulp of my drink. “When I gave you and Alicia a key, it was for an emergency.”

He closes the door and makes his way toward me on the couch. “This is an emergency.”

Oh, shit!

I push myself up. “Are the kids okay?”

“They’re fine, mate. But Alicia just came from Rachel’s and told me in no uncertain terms that I needed to come to talk to you, yet she wouldn’t tell me why.”

Fuck.

That means Rachel spilled.

But was it everything or only the tamer bits and pieces of what went down?

I push myself off the couch and wander over to the bar. “Want a drink?”

He waves off my offer and sits in the chair across from the couch. “You want to tell me what’s going on?”

At this point, if Alicia knows, it’s only a matter of time before Cade does.

I lower myself back onto the couch with a sigh. “Well, somehow, in the span of forty-eight hours, I told Rachel I loved her, we had sex, and then had a massive fight and basically aren’t talking to each other now.”

Cade’s dark eyebrows shoot up. “Wow, when you go for it, you really go for it. Though, I can’t say I’m surprised about the hooking up and undying love thing, I am a bit shocked you guys got into an argument. Aside from your recent little tiff, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you argue.”

“Yeah, well, that little tiff was about how I felt about her. She just didn’t know it back then.”

“But she does now, and yet, you two aren’t together?”