“Great!” Mr. Mack offered me his hand, pulling me in for a hug when I reached back. “Welcome home, Colt.”
“Thanks, and, uh, thanks for the ticket too.” I had absolutely no clue why I’d just thanked him for a ticket I didn’t even want. Because as much as I looked forward to seeing my parents, I dreaded seeing Alex more. Way more. This was a disaster in the making.
When we pulled up to their house, I grabbed my bag and started in the direction of home.
“Colton,” Mr. Mack, whisper-shouted, waving me back. “They don’t know you’re here. You’ll crash on our couch since it’s so late and we’ll surprise everyone in the morning.” He nodded, all too pleased with himself, while I was on the verge of a full-blown panic attack.
“Nah,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m just gonna go—”
His hand hooked around my shoulders as he guided me to the back door. “Sleep on our couch?” he urged.
“Sleep on your couch,” I agreed, laughing to myself.
Mr. Mack grabbed a pillow and blanket from the hall closet, setting them on the coffee table before heading off to bed. I’d slept in this house almost as many times as my own growing up, and I’d never taken the couch. This was weird.
As if he could read my thoughts, Mr. Mack called back over his shoulder on the way to his room, “Alex’s room is always an option...But something tells me you’re safer out here.”
Mr. Mack had jokes.
“What the hell is he doing here?” Alexis was fuming.
“Surprise!” her dad chimed.
She snorted. “Surprises are supposed to be good, Dad,” Alex hissed.
“You’ve been upset for weeks that he was missing Thanksgiving. I thought bringing Colton here would make you happy.”
Alex sighed. “Him at his house...that would make me happy. Him...here, in this house? Not so much.” Ouch.
“Relax, Allie. He’s only here because we didn’t get back ’til nearly three. As soon as he wakes up, I’ll give him the boot.”
“Perfect. I’ll be in my room ’til then. Come get me when he’s gone.”
It took every ounce of restraint I possessed not to lift my head and have a look at her when I heard her footfalls on the stairs behind me. I was supposed to be avoiding her, and at the first sound of her voice, I was fighting the urge to chase after her. I guess old habits are hard to break. It felt like I’d been chasing Alex my entire life.
“You heard the boss, Colt. Get up. Let’s go make your mom’s day,” Mr. Mack announced as soon as her door slammed shut. That man never missed a beat.
“Mind if I use the bathroom first?” I sat up on the couch, rolling the stiffness from my neck.
His lips curled into a slow smile. “You sure you ready to take that on, son?”
“Guess we’ll see.”
“Good luck, Colt.”
On the way up to Alex’s room, I made a brief stop at the hall table to retrieve the pin. Without warning, I picked the lock, swinging her door open.
“Is he gone...” She trailed off when she spun around to find me standing just inside her room. “What do you want, Colton?” Her face was red and splotchy, wet with tears. Allie’s tears were my kryptonite.
“I’m not sure,” I answered, my heart racing as I shut the door before stepping further into her room.
“You should go,” she whispered, wiping at her cheeks.
“We need to talk.”
Her hand lifted to her chest. “It’s been three months,” she choked out. “Three months, Colton. And now you want to talk?”
“Yeah,” I rasped, taking another step toward her. “Yeah, Al, I wanna talk.” My chest was tight, my heart racing. All I could see was my beautiful, broken girl, and all I wanted was a chance to fix us.
“Talk,” she said, her jaw ticking, her arms crossed defensively on her chest.
“I miss you.” A million other words needed saying, but those felt most important. Because suddenly all of the other shit felt trivial.
She nodded, touching her fingers to her trembling lips. “Me too.”
“I need you, Al,” I choked out, emotion thick in my throat. “I need you in my life.”
“I can’t.” Her head shook rapidly. “It hurts too much, Colt.”
Closing the last few steps between us, I tucked my finger beneath her chin, bringing her eyes to mine. “Not like this. It never hurt like this.”
Her tiny frame began to shake with sobs as she fell into my chest, fisting her hands into the front of my shirt. Wrapping my arms around her brought an inexplicable peace. We had a lot of shit to work out. But this girl was my life, and this felt like the first step to getting it back.
“Shhh,” I whispered, burying my face in her hair and inhaling the scent of her flowery shampoo. “We can fix this, babe.”
“H-h-how?” she sniveled.
“I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “But this feels like a good place to start.”
ALEXIS
“AH, THERE YOU ARE. I was about to go up there to make sure you were both still alive,” Dad teased, beaming from ear to ear as Colt and I descended the stairs.
Colton chuckled behind me.
“We’re gonna go next door,” I said, lifting onto my toes to plant a kiss on Daddy’s cheek.
“Sounds good...You two sort everything out?” he asked, a hopeful glint in his eye.
“We’re workin’ on it.”
Colton and I held hands while crossing the yard to his parents’ house in silence. There was so much to say, but neither of us were ready to open that door. My insides were a mess. I wished we could start over right there and pretend that the past few months hadn’t happened, but they had. And the pain of his rejection wasn’t something I could bury and forget about. But I knew that we had to find a way to fix things because loving Colton might hurt, but losing him was unbearable.
“Oh my God!” Mrs. Fowler mumbled, covering her mouth with her hands as we walked through the front door. She was shaking with excitement.
“Surprise!” Colt shouted, releasing my hand to embrace his emotional mother.
“Alexis, did you do this?” she asked when the two of them finally separated.
“No,” I said, clearing my throat. “It was my dad.”
I laughed when her face twisted in confusion. “Really?” she asked, looking to Colton.
His broad shoulders shrugged as he scrubbed at his chin, dipping his head in confirmation.
“How? When? Just yesterday you still had plans to go to Madison’s parent’s house.”
Oh God. Who was Madison? My heart lodged in my throat, and I felt the urge to run. This was never going to work.
Colton went white as a sheet, his eyes holding mine as he answered his mother. “There’s no Madison,” he rushed out. “I made her up so I wouldn’t have to come.” He was answering her but talking to me.
“Why would you do that? Are we so horrible, Colton?”
Colt’s hands fisted into his hair, tugging in frustration. He didn’t want to call me out. He didn’t want to hurt her. He was stuck.
“It wasn’t you. Colton didn’t want to come home because he didn’t want to have to see me,” I spoke up, tired of walking on eggshells.
Mrs. Fowler quit her pacing, her face fraught with confusion. “What?”