Page 128 of The Grand Ruin: Lance & Scarlet-Part One

Nothing.

What she’s feeling right now never fully goes away.

A gentle hand flattens on my back. “Excuse me.”

I turn and look down at Nina’s solemn face. “Nina,” I murmur.

She dips her head and brushes past me. Everyone’s eyes fall on her as she enters the kitchen.

“Where’s Mase?” Elliot asks.

She surveys the room, and I can tell she’s trying to keep it together, her brown eyes swimming as she shakes her head.

He left.

Fuck.

“He hates it here. I don’t blame him,” Scarlet whispers from where she sits.

“He fucking left?” Elliot snaps, matching my internal rage.

I’m hanging on by a thread, desperate to take Scarlet in my arms like I want to. Is it selfish for me to want what she doesn’t at a time like this? To need comfort from her when her world is falling apart.

A bitter jealousy stirs awake inside me as Nina steps around the kitchen island and wraps her arms around Scarlet’s shoulders.

“What can I do?” she asks.

Scarlet grasps Nina’s hand, squeezing it. “Nothing. Mase is going to need you.”

I watch the anguish paint Nina’s face, the unknown, what’s to come. “I know,” she murmurs sadly.

Mason won’t handle this well, and we all know it.

My sole focus is on Scar, though.

How will she handle this?

“Don’t touch me.”

“We never should have done this.”

I pushed her.

Constantly, to get what I wanted when she told me she couldn’t.

“What if I want more?”

“Lance—”

“What if I need another date?”

The way she smiled at me—the way she gave me so much more.

“I guess the men in my life haven’t always been the most reliable. I know it might seem unfair, but right now, while Dad is so sick and what’s to come when he eventually gets his transplant, I can’t commit to something more. Even a date.”

“What if I said I won’t let you down? What if I swear it? One date. If I lose interest, I’ll be honest with you. I’ll fuck off and leave you alone. But I won’t disappear before you give me a chance.”

I let her down, and I promised her I wouldn’t.

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