I let out a short breath, shifting away again, this time making it obvious.
She doesn’t take the hint.
Lyla, however, definitely notices. “So,” she cuts in, her voice way too amused, “what’s your name?”
The girl barely spares her a glance. “Tori.”
Lyla nods, taking a sip of her drink before looking straight at me. “And you definitely don’t have a girlfriend, right, Jax?”
I glare at her. Carter chokes on his beer.
Tori frowns slightly, looking between us. “Uh…”
I exhale, rubbing a hand down my face. “I don’t.”
It’s the truth, and yet, the second I say it, I feel like I’m lying.
Because no matter what I tell myself, no matter how long it’s been, no matter the space between us?—
Madison Blake still owns every fucking piece of me.
46
MADISON
Idon’t remember getting to my car.
One second, I’m in the bar, my heart being ripped straight out of my chest, and the next, I’m gripping the steering wheel so tightly, my knuckles turn white. My breath comes in short, uneven gasps, and I can’t tell if I’m freezing or burning alive.
I can still see him, Jaxon, sitting there, relaxed, smirking at something she said, letting another girl lean in close.
I squeeze my eyes shut, shaking my head like I can erase the image, but it’s burned into the back of my eyelids, replaying on a cruel, endless loop.
I should have expected this.
He told me he wasn’t going to chase me anymore.
I left. I let him go.
And now, he’s doing exactly what he should be doing—moving on.
I gasp in a shaky breath, resting my forehead against the steering wheel as nausea rolls through me.
Why does it hurt so much?
I did this.
Imade my choice.
I told myself I was protecting him, that I was doing the right thing by walking away before I could hurt him worse. But now, sitting here alone in this empty parking lot, my chest aching like something inside me has been irreversibly broken?—
I wonder if I was just protecting myself all along.
The what-ifs crash over me like a wave, relentless and suffocating.
What if I’d just stayed that night at the hospital?
What if I hadn’t pushed him away?
