Wright with Benefits

Hollin grumbled under his breath and tromped back to the entrance, ostensibly to send everyone home. He caught Nora at the entrance, and her eyes went wide. I lost what she said as they both scrambled through the door. A few minutes later, Campbell ceased playing, and a chorus of boos came from the crowd. Then a flood of disgruntled concertgoers came through the open barn doors.

The cops stood sentinel as the crowd filed through the parking lot and began the slow process of clearing the place out.

Julian was still working his magic with Jensen and Morgan both coming over to help smooth things over. The cops seemed to straighten up at the sight of them. Nothing like the power of the Wrights in this town.

Jordan finally turned to find me still huddled with Sutton off to the side.

Sutton saw him walk toward me, squeezed my arm, and made herself scarce. “Find me when you’re done.”

I nodded at her and met Jordan head-on. “Hey.”

He ran a hand back through his hair. Only realizing afterward that his knuckles were broken and bloody. “You should go home.”

My heart constricted, and I forced myself not to cry again. “After all that…that’s all you’re going to say to me?” I shook my head. “God, Jordan, nothing happened with Chase.”

“I believe you.”

“Then what…?”

“Annie, just go home.”

“I don’t get you. You don’t talk to me for a week. You hole up and avoid me. Then when you claim we’re finally going to talk, you assault my friend, and tell me to go home without an explanation?” I demanded. “This isn’t you.”

“This is exactly who I am.”

“I know you, Jordan. Whether or not you want to believe it, I do. I know exactly who you are. And right now, you’re hurting and taking it out on everything and everyone around you.”

He gritted his teeth as if to keep himself from exploding all over again. “Go. Home.”

I sniffled and shook my head. “Fine,” I snapped. “I’ll go to keep you from saying anything else you’re going to regret.”

“You think I regret a damn thing that happened in there?” he demanded, pointing at the barn. “Chase had that coming to him.”

“And me?” I shouted back at him. “Did I have that coming, too?”

Jordan looked away from me. “You said from the beginning that we were temporary.”

I choked back a gasp. “And you don’t think that’s changed?” I asked, my voice strangled. “What about Seattle?”

“Seattle was a pipe dream!” he yelled.

I shrank back. “I thought it was real.”

“Fuck, Annie. Day one, you said you were leaving, and I wanted to keep you, so I said I’d go. What else could I say?”

“You could have talked to me!” I insisted.

“And said what?” He laughed derisively. “You wanted Seattle. I wanted you. And now my mom has cancer. I can’t leave Lubbock, Annie, and I can’t keep you from following your dream.”

“What if I just want you?”

Jordan shook his head. “No, that’s not what you want. You’d regret it, and I’d never let you do it. If you want to get out of here, you’ll go. We both knew from the start that you were leaving with or without me, and you still are.”

Silence stretched between us.

Well, there it was.

I’d started this. I’d made us friends with benefits and told him to expect nothing more. Should I be surprised that he didn’t see that I was in love with him? That I would have…had given up everything to stay here with him? This might have been grief talking, but it still hurt. It still hurt like he’d cut me open, looked at my insides, and somehow missed all the important parts.

“That’s what you think of me?” I asked hoarsely.

“It’s not what I think of you, Annie. It’s just how it is. You and I were fun while it lasted, but you were the one who drew the line in the sand. You were the one who put a time limit on our affections. I’m just the one walking away so that you can follow your dreams.”

I choked. He thought he was being selfless. He thought that by ghosting me and then breaking up with me, he was being kind. How dare he! How fucking dare he!

“You don’t get to make that choice for me,” I snarled as I wrestled the claddagh ring off of my finger. “You don’t get to be an ass and think that you’re doing the right thing in all of this. It isn’t fair. I’m a whole person who can think and breathe and make my own goddamn choices.”

I’d gotten attached to the ring, but I didn’t want his version of my ring.

I flung the ring at him. It thudded softly against his chest. He furrowed his brows as if he didn’t realize what I’d done, his hand landing on his chest where the ring had hit.