Tomboy

Four concerned faces stared back at her. No one said a damn thing.

Finally, Lucy spoke up. “You go fight to make this right.”

The effervescent bubbles of maybe-this-will-work had her sitting up straight again as she glanced at her mom and three best friends in the world, certainty filling her. “Okay. Somebody call me an Uber.”

“Honey, I think you might need a shower first,” her mom advised wisely.

Yes, first stop, get this mess off her face. Next, go get her man back.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Fallon had washed Zach’s hoodie and it didn’t smell like him anymore. It was just a sweatshirt with a vaguely floral scent. Still, she took one last inhale before walking up to his front door. There was noise coming from inside and a handful of cars—including Caleb’s truck—parked in the usually empty driveway. Steeling herself for whatever would come next, she raised her hand and knocked on the door.

Nothing happened.

She looked back at her Uber driver, who’d been amazing and had given her a pep talk on the way here and a second one when they drove through the open gate. Now he gave her a thumbs-up. That was a good sign, right? The kindness of strangers and all that?

Turning back around, she tried to calm her jangly nerves by clutching the hoodie a little tighter and knocked on the door again.

“I’m coming,” someone hollered from inside.

A few moments later, the door swung open, revealing Caleb holding a bowl of chips and an Xbox remote. His gaze dropped from her face to the hoodie she was holding on to like it was the only thing she had left in the world then back up before lifting an eyebrow in a question.

“Hey, Caleb.” Okay, this wasn’t awkward at all. “Is Zach here?”

He turned his head and hollered behind him. “Blackburn, someone’s here for you.”

Someone? Yeah, that probably was all she was now, just someone. To get past the sharp pain in her chest, she pressed her lips together hard enough to hurt and inhaled a deep breath through her nose to calm her heart.

“Thanks.”

Caleb, usually so chatty, nodded. Really, she couldn’t blame him. If their places were swapped and someone had acted toward one of her girls the way she had toward Zach, she’d be righteously pissed, too.

A noise behind Caleb must have alerted him that Zach was coming because he relaxed his posture before whispering, “Don’t fuck it up” and clearing out of the doorway.

She didn’t have time to freak out about the warning, though, because Zach was standing there in the next heartbeat. It wasn’t fair that he looked so good when she was standing there with her breath probably still smelling of raw cookie dough. Or maybe it was fair. He wasn’t the one who’d betrayed the other’s trust. And no matter how valid her reason may have seemed at the time, that was what she’d done.

“I know you’re mad,” she said, her voice shaky and higher than normal. “You have every right to be. I was wrong. I should never have disregarded your wishes. I hope someday you’ll be able to forgive me. Until then, I brought your hoodie.”

Too nervous after that babbling word vomit, she shoved his hoodie in his direction, hitting him square in the chest. When she started to let go, he clapped his hand over hers, holding her in place and sending a jolt of electricity through her.

“Why did you do it?” he asked, his tone as inscrutable as his expression.

She’d practiced what she’d say in her head in the Uber. It had all made so much sense then. But now? It was just a jumble of emotion-soaked words swimming around her head and making her heart ache.

“I didn’t want anyone to believe your parents’ lies.” The words came out in a rush. “I didn’t want them to be able to hurt you anymore. I know that’s probably the last thing you want to hear from me, especially after that dig I made about how dumb it was for you to ignore what they were doing, just to protect your pride. Oh God, that sounded so much better when I was planning out what I was going to say in the Uber.”

He stroked his thumb over the top of her hand pressed to his chest before letting it go so it dropped back to her side. “You thought a lot about this?”

“Not enough, obviously.” She let out a deep breath, straightened her shoulders, and looked him straight on. “I never meant to accidentally start dating you, and I most certainly didn’t mean to fall in love with you, but I did. The fact that I messed it all up will be one of my biggest regrets. I couldn’t help it, though. I thought, and I still do, that you’re worth fighting for.”

When he just stood there staring at her, that last little shred of hope that this crazy idea would work out, that somehow, he’d be able to forgive her, died. So much for that.

“Well, that’s what I had to say. Good luck tomorrow night. I’ll be rooting for you.”

And since there was nothing left to say, and she was about ten seconds away from falling apart, she turned and started toward her Uber.

Her driver gave her a sympathetic smile.