The pieces begin to click into place. He knows about Milo. He’s been in a fight.Oh, God.He kicked Milo’s ass.
“Oh, Cody, tell me you didn’t,” I beg. “Did you hurt him?”
Cody’s face falls ever so slightly, but he nonchalantly shrugs it off. “No, not really. Just flesh wounds. No worse than what I have.”
I groan. “God, Cody, why would you do that?”
“Because...” he tells me with genuine, big eyes looking at me so sweetly that I couldn’t possibly be mad even if I tried, “he can’t get away with how he’s been treating you, Darcy. It’s not fucking fair. You don’t deserve that, and he wasn’t going to stop. I had to make him.”
I breathe a sharp exhale of air through my nose and shake my head at this stupid, stupid man. I hate that I can’t help but smile. He really is too great. And it’s sweet that he was trying to protect me.Annoying, yes, but still sweet.
“Come on,” I say, taking his hand in mine. “Let’s go get you cleaned up.”
Cody adamantly shakes his head but doesn’t come close to loosening his grip on my hand. “You aren’t cleaning up after my mess, Darcy. I’m here to helpyou, not the other way around.”
“You can’t be the macho, tough guy all the time, Cody,” I say, searching his dark and bloodshot eyes. He looks so bad, so scarily bad. I hate that I’m the cause of it. He deserves so much better than me, so much more than I could ever give.
“I know that, and I’m not trying to be,” he argues gently, reaching up with his free hand to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. He’s watching me in a way that makes me weak in the knees. I don’t think anyone else has ever made me feel as seen as he does, and it’s terrifying. “It’s just that I’ve caused enough trouble this week as it is. For once, let me be the one to fix it. Please. I need this.”
I hum with half a mind to give in and let him have what he wants if it’ll make the sadness in his eyes dim even just a bit. But looking at him, I know that can’t happen. Sometimes when you care about someone, you have to do things that they don’t necessarily like.
“How about we fix it together?” I offer.
Cody watches me for a moment, and I think he’s going to decline, but he finally sighs quietly and nods. “Alright, fine. It’s a deal.”
I smile wider than I have in days. It’s amazing how he can so quickly make me feel like a little kid again. He’s so special. I think he might be the most special person I’ve ever met.
“Alright, tough guy. Let’s go get this nasty blood off of you.”
Hand in hand, we walk back into the hotel. It feels like every pair of eyes is on us as we walk through the lobby, and I’m a bit disturbed by the blood the custodian is cleaning from the dining room floor, but I hold my head high and keep my hand tightly intertwined with Cody’s all the way to the elevator, to my floor, and into my room. I sit him down on the couch andretrieve my travel-sized first aid kit from my suitcase. I return to the living room and sit on the coffee table in front of him. He looks so pitiful, with his bruised, droopy eyes and his lips tugged down into a frown. When he sees me, he tries to smile, but it doesn’t come anywhere close to being believable. His sadness makesmesad.Reallysad, actually. I think I would give anything to fix him.
“Did you even come home last night?” I ask him in lieu of anything else to say.
He shakes his head, wincing and hissing softly when I rub antiseptic across his knuckles.
“Sorry,” I apologize gently, pausing just briefly to let him recover before I continue. “You know you can’t do that, right? You can’t just disappear when things get hard. It sucks—for you and those of us who care about you.”
He scoffs, which catches me completely off guard.
I raise my eyebrows. “What?”
Cody's eyes meet mine, a storm brewing behind them. "Nobodycaresabout me, Darcy," he says, his voice low and rough. “Nobody has ever fucking cared. I’ve been alone my entire life, so it really doesn’t fucking matter what I do because, at the end of the day, there’s no one here waiting for me to come home. If I never came home again, I don’t think anybody would even notice.”
I blink at him, completely taken aback. His voice is raw pain. I’m not quite sure what to say to that. I’m in complete shock that he really believes this is true. Does he have no idea how much his sister loves him? How much she cares for him and admires him? And me...
"Cody," I start, but he cuts me off.
"There's something I haven't told you about Claudia," he says, his voice steady but strained.
I pause, cotton ball hovering over his bruised knuckles. "What is it?"
Cody takes a deep breath, his broad shoulders rising and falling. When he speaks, his voice is controlled, but I can hear the effort it takes. "When I said she left... that's not the whole truth. She died. In a car accident. I was driving."
My heart stops.Oh my God.I struggle to keep my face neutral, but my mind is reeling. Everything suddenly makes so much sense – his distance, his self-destructive behavior.
"Oh, my God. Cody." I move in one quick movement and pull him into my arms. His head falls to rest on my shoulder, and I instinctively bring my hands to his back, one working its way up his neck and into his hair. I massage his scalp, weaving my fingers through his soft locks. My breaths come quick and shallow, my heart racing in my chest.
"I'm so sorry," I apologize, my voice barely above a whisper. "All this time, I've been trying to compare our situations because I thought?—"
