I’d learn how to smile again on my own. Jacob and I were going to be okay. I wasn’t a kid anymore. I didn’t need to rely on someone to take away my pain like I had in high school. I’d needed Matt back then. He really had helped me after my uncle died. But I didn’t need him now.
“I was just trying to help,” Tanner said.
I purposely hadn’t sat next to him. But he must have switched with someone. I honestly didn’t even know who I’d been sitting next to. I was so distracted. “Trying to help how? By lying to my face?”
“It was a tiny fib.”
“So do you fib a lot?”
“Not by choice.” He shook his head. “We’re getting sidetracked. Brooklyn, I really am sorry. I thought it would just be the two of us sitting together. And Jacob of course. And that I could explain everything as soon as we sat down.”
“Explain what exactly? What are you trying to do?”
“Get you back together with your fiancé.”
It felt like he’d punched me in the gut. “Matt isn’t my fiancé.”
“Well, technically he is. He thought you died. You never actually broke up.”
I scoffed. “I’m pretty sure he feels differently.”
“What on earth do you mean?”
“Are you kidding me? He’s currently dating two women. One of which is a monster. And the other ismybest friend.” I gestured to the field where Matt and Kennedy were standing side by side. She was wearing his freaking jersey for goodness sakes. And yeah, we weren’t in high school anymore. But that still meant something.
Tanner waved his hand through the air. “I have a fix for all that. We’re already making progress.”
Progress?My stomach churned. “Did you take me back to my house to try and give me some semblance of closure with my husband? Just so that I could move on with someone who isn’t even available anymore? Who I no longer even know?”
He pressed his lips together.
“Seriously, what are you trying to accomplish by interfering with my mourning?”
“I believe in true love. And I think Matt…”
“I can’t do this.” I stood up. I needed to get Jacob.
“Brooklyn, please,” he grabbed my hand.
I pulled it out of his. “If you understood true love then you’d know that Miller was mine.” I could feel everyone staring and I didn’t care.
“I was just trying to help you move on…”
“Hejustdied. Ijustlost him.” I collapsed back down on the bench. “I just lost him.”
“It’s been weeks, Brooklyn.”
“Weeks! Not months. Not years. I mourned the loss of Matt forgetting about me for years.” My voice cracked. “And I will mourn losing Miller for the rest of my fucking life.”
“I know. I wasn’t saying you didn’t love him. I wasn’t telling you not to mourn him. Or saying that you’d ever forget about your love with him. I just wanted you to have an open mind…”
“For what? To be the third girl Matt is currently dating?”
“He doesn’t love them.”
“Then that kills me. Because Kennedy deserves someone that loves her. She deserves the whole world.”
“So do you.”
