Page 32 of For Keeps. For Always.

She moves toward my bedroom door. “Joke’s on me,” she contemplates. “I guess I should've known better.”

There’s no hurt in her tone. No pain at my betrayal. I wasn’t lying when I told Henley that Evelyn and I were nothing serious. But it’s obvious enough that Evelyn’s pride has been hit. It’s been decimated by the fact I couldn’t bring myself to touch her the way I would’ve given my life to do with Henley last night.

She’s beautiful—there’s no denying that—and not used to rejection. To the reality of coming in second place. Toanyone.

“Go back to London, Henley. Your moping is the ultimate buzzkill.” She yawns. “Everyone was happier with you gone.”

With that, she’s gone, and I reach for Henley in reassurance.

“Don’t touch me.”

Stumbling from my bed, she holds my sheet to her body, leaving me completely naked. She turns her back quickly, like she hadn’t touched and tasted and felt me all over her last night.

“How could we forget you have a girlfriend? Oh, my God. I can’t believe we did that, Brooks. We’re horrible people.”

“Henley.” I reach for her, but she moves out of my grasp in search of her clothes.

“You cheated.Wecheated.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” I assure her.

I did. The truth is, Evelyn didn’t even cross my thoughts last night. Nothing else existed in my world. Nothing but Henley.

Whirling on me, hand still clinging to the sheet for dear life, her eyes widen in shock. “I knew you had a girlfriend. Iknewthat, and I let last night happen. I’m just as guilty as you are. I need to leave.”

Dread claws at my chest. No. This wasn’t the plan. What happened was supposed to push us closer together, not farther apart.

“What happened tofor keeps? Tofor always?” I spit.

She turns away from my animosity. “I forgot that you belonged to someone else.”

Picking up the lamp on my bedside table, I throw it against the wall, watching it shatter into irredeemable pieces. The deafening crack stiffens her spine. “Give me a fucking break,” I sneer. “I’ve only ever belonged to you. In the same way you belong to me.”

“Except that’s not true,” she tells me calmly, turning back to me. “You’re with Evelyn, and we did somethingunforgivable.”

“Sometimes you have to do something unforgivable to find where you belong.”

Her head shakes. “Not like this. You don’t break someone else to find your happy ending, Brooks. It doesn’t work like that.”

“Says who?”

“Says me.”

I inhale through my nostrils, searching for calm. And my pants. Pulling them up my legs, I zip them up, leaving the top button undone as I move toward her.

She steps back.

“Please don’t cower away from me.Please don’t do that.”

Her chin wobbles.

“I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry I got so caught up in you that nothing else existed. I’m sorry that I don’t feel bad about what we did. It was the most alive and real I’ve felt since you left.”

“It was wrong,” she whispers.

“All of it?”

She shrugs.

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