Last night had been fucking brutal. Bryan had destroyed me. What I couldn’t figure out was why, because I knew she hadn’t had one foot out the door. Right? Maybe she just wasn’t willing to fight for us. I hadn’t talked to her today. I was avoiding her, which was easy because I was in the studio and she was with Landry at swim. See? I knew she had swim class today.
“Earth to Jacks.” Luke snapped his fingers in front of my face.
“Sorry, what?”
He cocked his head. “How you doing, man?”
I shook my head. “I feel like my heart was ripped out of my fucking chest and the sun will never shine again.”
Luke’s eyebrows rose. “I wish there was something we could say, or do, to make it better.”
“There isn’t.” I didn’t want to talk about it, it hurt too much. The thought of Bryan leaving was literally gut wrenching.
“What are you going to do?”
I looked over to Smith. “What can I do? She’d rather run than fight. And I can’t even blame her. Between Landry and her mom…my life is chaos right now. She has every reason to want to go.” I just thought we meant more to her than that.
“Fight for both of you.” My head shot up at the sound of Dylan’s voice. I hadn’t even heard the door open.
“What?”
“You heard me, Jacks. Fight. Fight enough for the both of you.”
I stood. “Are you kidding me right now? You’ve been all but daring her to leave for the past month, and now that she actually is, you want to be supportive?”
“I realized something last night.” She closed her eyes, steeling herself. “I was wrong.”
She opened her eyes and I held her gaze. “She lied. Last night, she lied about why she was leaving. Didn’t she?”
“Go ask her yourself. Go fight.” She gestured to the floor above us.
I turned toward the stairs. I’d show these people a fucking fight. I wasn’t going to let her leave us, and she had another think coming if she thought I’d let her sacrifice herself for us. I entered the main floor to the sound of Landry laughing. It was her super happy laugh; it sounded like little bells. I followed the sound into the backyard where Landry, Bryan, and Dagger were running around with the cutest white puppy I’d ever seen. “B?”
Bryan looked up when I walked out onto the back porch, her smile wary. “Hey.”
I stared across the yard. “Whose puppy?”
“Landry’s.” She reached down and gave him a good tummy scratch when he rolled over at her feet. “I saw him on a shelter website and I couldn’t resist.”
I nodded. “A going-away present?”
“Something like that.”
Her answer cut deep. If we were going to have this out, it was going to happen right fucking now. “Hey, Buttercup? Uncle Luke is making lunch. Why don’t you go eat and then you can come back out and play.”
She looked from me to Bryan. “Are you mad about the puppy?”
I chuckled. “Of course not! He’s the cutest puppy I have ever seen. We need to pick a name later.” I waited for her to head into the house before turning back to Bryan. “I need you to be honest with me.” She nodded. “Do you want to leave? Are you bored with me? Not cut out for this life?” She shook her head. “Then what the fuck happened last night?”
“I love Landry more than I love myself. I love you more than I love myself.” Her voice trembled. “And me leaving would guarantee that the two people I love most in this world would always be together.”
I wanted to sink down to my knees and worship this woman. She was strong. She was stronger than anyone I’d ever met. Including me. Where I was ready to fight tooth and nail to keep them both, she was selfless enough to not make me. “My God, I love you.”
She bent down and picked up the tiny puppy, snuggling him to her chest. “She called me Momma today.”
“Landry did?”
She nodded. “Yeah. We were in the car and she said, ‘okay, Momma,’ like it was the most natural thing in the world. At first I thought she’d seen her mom, or it was just an accident. But…”
“She doesn’t call Amelia Momma.”
“No. She doesn’t.” A tear rolled down her cheek. Before I could move to wipe it, she held her hand up, stopping me. “I’m not leaving.”
“What?” I swallowed past the lump in my throat, afraid to believe what I thought I heard.
“I realized something today. Landry’s not just yours, she’s mine too. I’ve known her just as long as you have. She might not have my DNA, but she has my heart. And I’m not going to let them take her from us.”
“Say it again.”
“I’m. Not. Leav—”