Page 65 of Forever Yours

It gave me the seconds I needed to find Ryder. He and Jayson were in the kitchen.

“Have you had anything to drink?”

Ryder held up a mug of coffee. “This. Why? You want me to make you a cup?”

The microwave beeped, and Jayson took the steaming bag of rice out and dumped it onto the plate with the grilled chicken and broccoli he’d made for Julien.

Ryder’s eyebrows shot up when Julien scrambled on bare feet across the kitchen floor, clutching the towel at his side.

“Please let me explain.”

Jayson’s gaze ping-ponged between Julien and me. “What’s going on?”

“Can you give me a ride?” I asked Ryder, ignoring Julien’s repeats of “baby” as he tried to get my attention.

Ryder looked questioningly at Julien.

Julien came around to stand directly in front of me. Going from pleading to demanding, he said, “You aren’t leaving.”

I hissed in pain when he accidentally wrenched my arm trying to grab my wrist.

“Shit. I’m sorry.”

I was too damn weary to fight with him. I needed some space to calm down, otherwise that fight I was trying so hard to avoid having with him was going to happen right there in the middle of their kitchen.

Ryder placed his mug in the sink. “Yeah, I can take you.”

“The fuck you will! You are not leaving!” Julien shouted.

Jayson pushed away from the counter island. “I don’t know what happened in the last five minutes, but will someone tell me what the hell is going on?”

“He saw the tattoo.”

The room went pin-drop quiet until Jayson stupidly asked, “You didn’t tell him?”

Ryder whacked the back of his head.

He retaliated by punching Ryder in the arm. “Quit it, jackass.”

The bag was straining my sore arm, so I set it down. I swept a hand through the hair that fell over my forehead and winced when my fingers grazed the swollen knot on my scalp.

Julien angled close but stopped when I cut him a glare, that damned tattoo of Liz’s name standing out like a neon sign under the harsh fluorescent kitchen lighting.

“Babe, you’re in no shape to be moving around. Let me take care—”

“Can I ask you a question?”

Julien nodded, hope gathering behind his silver-gray eyes.

“How would you feel if I got some other man’s name tattooed directly above my heart?”

His severe scowl gave me the answer.

“Did you even consider my feelings at all, have a second of hesitation, anything?”

“I didn’t mean… we miss her so much and…” He looked to Ryder and Jayson for help, but I held up my hand, not wanting to hear any of it.

Emotional exhaustion weighed heavily upon me and made the physical exhaustion that much more agonizing.

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