“Just hear me out.” He holds his hands up. “How could she tell you? If she told you, then she’d lose that chance to save her sister’s life. She was eighteen years old and faced with an impossible choice. If that were me and you needed a treatment that could possibly save your life, I would have chosen you without a second thought. Nothing would have been more important than saving the life of my brother—because that’s what you are to me, Adam. You’re my brother.
“And Casey was just a kid, a kid who was dying. You know how much Evie loves her. She was working her fingers to the bone to help pay for her medical bills. If Casey had died, Evie would have blamed herself. And Ava clearly knew that, and she used it to her advantage. We know the kind of people Ava is. Evie doesn’t. She didn’t stand a chance against Ava. Neither of you did really. The instant Ava decided she wanted Evie gone, there was only ever one outcome, and it was the one that happened The only good thing that came out of Ava’s fucked-up-ness, doing this to you and Evie, was saving that kid’s life.
“You’re laying the blame for this at the feet of two people when it should be only one. Evie was just as innocent as you were in this. You need to stop punishing her. Either forgive and take her back, or let her go once and for all.”
“I have let her go.”
“No, you haven’t.” He shakes his head at me. “You don’t know how to. You haven’t been able to for the last ten years, and you sure as shit can’t now. So, you either stay here and mope like a little bitch, or you go find Evie and talk to her.”
I stare at him, a pain in my chest so severe, it feels like my heart is failing. “I can’t forgive her.” I shake my head. “She should have told me the truth the second she came back. She didn’t. And I can’t forgive her for that.”
“Yeah, she should have. But put yourself in her place. She was a kid when it happened. She’s held on to that shit for ten years. Then, she gets back, and you’re here. She was afraid to lose you again. She might have left, but she lost you as well.”
“That you talking or her?”
“Me.”
“You on her side or something?” I snap.
I snap because I hear the truth in his words, but I don’t want to accept them.
I want to feel angry. If I don’t have my anger, then I have nothing.
“Stop being a dick, Adam. You know I’m on your side. I’m always on your side. That’s why I’m saying these things. I want you to be happy. And Evie’s your happy.” He finishes his drink and stands.
“You leaving?” I ask in a low voice.
“Yep. Things to do, * to see.” He winks.
I watch him walk toward the exit.
My mind races through the words he just said. But I keep looping back to one thing.
Evie’s my happy.
He’s right. I’ve never been happier than when I was with her.
And I’ve spent a really long time being miserable.
I don’t want to be miserable anymore.
“Max?”
He stops opening the door, and looks across at me.
I move my eyes from him, staring straight ahead, unable to look at him while I say, “Evie…is she still at the coffee shop?”
I don’t have to see his face to know the smug bastard is smiling.
“No. She said she was heading home right after I left.” Pause. “You need a ride to her place?”
Swiveling my stool around to face him, I let my feet hit the floor. “Yeah,” I say, finally meeting his smirking eyes. “A ride would be good.”
“Guess my * can wait.” He grins. “Come on then, loser. Let’s go get your wife back.”
“So, I’m driving you to Evie’s, but you don’t actually know where she lives.” Max sighs.
“I know which apartment building she lives in, assface. I just don’t know which fucking apartment it is.”
“Well, I guess you could try knocking on every door in her building. Or you could do a John Cusack and stand outside her apartment building with a boom box, playing your song to get her attention. Only problem with that is you don’t have a boom box, so you’d have to play it from your iTunes app on your phone, which isn’t anywhere near as cool, or romantic. And can you even get Bon Jovi on iTunes?” Max grins at me.
“You’re a dick.” I chuckle, shaking my head.
I could do what Max said, play her our song, but I have a much simpler, although less romantic, way of finding out which one is her apartment.