Hers to Keep (Irresistibly Bound 3)

Lindsey collapsed onto her knees and started to sob.

Lindsey lay curled up on Faith’s couch, tissues strewn around her. She’d called Faith in tears after leaving the manor. She had no one else to turn to, nowhere to go. Faith still had a few hours before she finished work, so Lindsey was all alone. At least she still had Faith’s spare key.

The sound of the front door opening reached Lindsey’s ears. She didn’t bother to look. She didn’t have the energy to move or do anything other than try to keep herself from bursting into tears.

“Lindsey? I’m home.” Faith’s footsteps approached. She sat down on the couch next to Lindsey’s head. “How are you doing?”

Before Lindsey could answer her, she started sobbing into Faith’s lap.

“Oh honey,” Faith said. “I’m sorry.”

“I messed up. I messed up so badly, and she’ll never forgive me, and now it’s over.” Lindsey felt a wrenching in her chest. “I didn’t know I could hurt this much. It’s like my insides are filled with all these tiny shards of glass and it hurts to even breathe.”

“I know.” Faith stroked Lindsey’s head. “This is what a broken heart feels like.”

Lindsey sniffled. “Is it always this bad?”

“Every time.”

“Then why do people do this? Why do people fall in love when this is what always happens?”

“Because when you finally find the person you’re meant to be with, all of that past heartbreak is worth it. At least, I hope that’s the case. For both of our sakes.”

Another round of sobs racked Lindsey’s body. “But she was the person I was meant to be with.”

“It will get better,” Faith said. “I promise. It’ll take a while, but it’ll start to hurt less. You’ll be okay in the end.”

“No, I won’t. I’ll never be okay again. Not after I hurt her so badly.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself. You’ll get through this. And I’ll be right here with you.”

Lindsey wiped her eyes. “Wait, why are you here? I thought you didn’t finish work until this evening?”

“The Yangs let me go after I picked the kids up from school. There’s a reason they’ve been paying me late. It turns out they can’t afford a nanny anymore.”

“I’m sorry, Faith.”

Faith shrugged. “They said they’d give me a good reference. Maybe I’ll find some other rich family to nanny for. On the plus side, it means I’ll be around to keep you company.” She sighed. “I really liked that job, though.”

“I guess we can be miserable together,” Lindsey said.

“Should I make some punch?”

“God, no.” Still, Lindsey couldn’t help but smile.

“You see?” Faith said. “Things aren’t all doom and gloom. It’ll be okay.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

Lindsey lay on Faith’s couch, staring at the ceiling. An old sitcom was playing on the TV, but Lindsey wasn’t paying attention to it. How was she supposed to do something as mundane as watch TV when she felt like her heart had been torn right out of her chest?

Ever since the accident, Lindsey had been struggling to feel anything at all. It was why she’d agreed to do something this crazy in the first place. She’d wanted adventure, romance, to capture that feeling of being happy and carefree.

She had gotten so much more than that. She’d stopped living in the past, stopped looking backward, and started looking forward to the future that she was supposed to share with Camilla. She’d fallen in love for the first time.

And now she felt the crushing pain of heartbreak.

There was a knock on the door. Lindsey groaned. She didn’t want to get up. She’d barely left the couch for the past few days, with the exception of this morning. Faith had forced her to take a shower, because, in Faith’s words, Lindsey was ‘getting stinky.’ But Faith was out running errands, leaving Lindsey all alone in the house again.