Chapter 30
THIRTY
The weight slammed down with a satisfying clang, and I immediately loaded more plates onto the bar.
I’d been at the gym for two hours, pushing myself harder than I had all summer, and it still wasn’t enough to burn off the nerves crackling under my skin. Tonight was the night. Ava and I were meeting Drew for dinner, and we were going to tell him everything.
She was still in Meadowbrook because she had some dance classes, but she was planning to drive up once she was done.
To say I was nervous was an understatement.
I positioned myself under the bar and pushed through another set of bench presses, my muscles screaming in protest. The pain felt good. Deserved, even. Because no matter how this conversation went, I’d earned whatever Drew was going to throw at me.
He was going to be pissed.
He might even hate me for a while, but he also knew me better than anyone, and I hoped that would work in my favor because it meant he knew that when I really wanted something, nothing could stop me.
I racked the bar and sat up, wiping sweat from my face with my shirt.
Peak Fitness was the gym in Dunridge that Drew was working at this summer.
We’d both had memberships here before he’d gotten the job after his fight with his parents.
I was thankful he didn’t appear to be working today.
It would’ve been awkward to run into him here and avoid the conversation we needed to have until we went to dinner.
And I sure as shit wasn’t about to tell him I was sleeping with his sister when we were near heavy weights that he could throw at me.
I checked my phone. There was still two hours until dinner, but it felt like an eternity. I was both eager and terrified about getting this conversation over with.
The thing was, I knew Drew. Drew was loyal to his core—fiercely and sometimes irrationally protective of the people he loved.
Which was exactly why this could end up being an absolute disaster.
Because Ava wasn’t just some random girl. She was his twin sister. And I’d been sneaking around with her behind his back for months, lying to his face all this time.
You’re a good friend, you know that? I don’t know what I’d do without you.
The memory of Drew’s words made my stomach churn. Good friend. Right. A good friend wouldn’t have spent the summer buried inside his best friend’s sister. A good friend wouldn’t have fallen for her so hard that the thought of walking away made him want to tear his own chest open.
But I had. I’d fallen. And now I had to face the consequences.
I was loading more weight onto the bar—probably too much, but I didn’t care—when my phone buzzed and Drew’s name flashed on the screen.
Shit. He was probably calling to confirm dinner plans. I wiped my hands on my shorts and answered.
“Hey, man. I’m still good for—”
“I need your help.”
Drew’s voice cracked on the last word, and every muscle in my body went rigid. I’d heard Drew angry. I’d heard him frustrated, exhausted, overwhelmed. But I’d never heard him sound like this.
Utterly broken.
“I’ll be there in ten.”
I didn’t wait for him to respond. I just grabbed my keys and ran. I didn’t need to ask what happened to know it was something bad.
The drive to the hockey house was a blur of stop signs and yellow lights I probably should have waited for. I pulled into the driveway and didn’t bother knocking. The door was unlocked, and the sound of Rory’s screaming hit me the second I stepped inside.
“Jesus, Drew.”
He was standing in the middle of the living room, bouncing Rory against his chest while she wailed like her world was ending.
I took one look at Drew—the panic in his eyes and the way his hands were shaking—and immediately crossed to him.
“Give her to me.”
He handed Rory over without argument—which was the biggest indicator of his state of mind—and I settled her against my chest, bouncing gently and making the shushing sounds that usually worked to settle her down.
It took a minute, but eventually her screams quieted to hiccuping sobs, then to sniffles, then to exhausted silence.
“What happened?” I asked.
Drew collapsed onto the couch, running his hands through his hair. He looked like absolute shit—eyes red, face pale, every line of his body radiating defeat. “Harper found out about that stupid bet.”
My jaw went slack with shock. “How the fuck did she find out?”
“I don’t know. She didn’t say how, and really the how doesn’t matter. She found out and now she thinks our whole relationship was a lie.”
“Fuck.” I settled into the chair across from him, Rory finally quiet in my arms.
“I know,” he groaned, scrubbing his hands through his hair. “I told her the truth about it when she asked. About how it started, how I found out, how I shut it down.” He met my eyes. “But she asked when I knew about it, and I had to tell her I’d known the whole time we were together.”
“Shit.”
“She trusted me completely,” he said. “She told me things she’d never told anyone. And I was keeping this huge secret from her every day.”
“You thought you’d killed it. Why would you tell her when it didn’t make a difference?”
“It makes a difference to her. She doesn’t believe that what we have is real.”
“Anyone who’s seen you two together can see it’s as real as it gets.”
“But how can I prove it now? Everything I say just sounds like more bullshit. She doesn’t feel like she can trust that I’ve changed at all.”
I didn’t know what to say. Because the truth was, I understood why he’d kept it from her. He’d thought he’d killed the bet and that it wouldn’t matter. She’d never be hurt by something if she didn’t know about it. In his own way, he’d been trying to protect her.
But secrets had a way of rotting things from the inside out.
“Drew.” My voice was firm. “Look at me.” I didn’t speak again until he did. “The old Drew wouldn’t be sitting here freaking out about losing her. The old Drew wouldn’t have cared enough to feel guilty about keeping a secret. The old Drew would have just moved on to the next girl.”
“What do I do?” It was hard to see my best friend look so lost.
“You give her space to feel what she needs to feel,” I said. “You don’t chase her, you don’t blow up her phone, you don’t show up wherever she is. You prove you’ve changed by handling this like an adult.”
“What if she doesn’t come back?” he asked, his voice shaking slightly.
“Then you’ll deal with that too. But Drew, she loves you. I’ve seen the way she looks at you. Love like that doesn’t just disappear because of one mistake.”
“One huge mistake that makes her think our whole relationship was fake.”
“One mistake that you’re owning up to instead of making bullshit excuses. That has to mean something.”
We sat there for a while without talking. Rory stirred in my arms, making a small sound of complaint, and I adjusted her position. She was getting heavy, but I didn’t mind. Holding her gave me something to focus on besides the guilt eating through my stomach.
Because here was my best friend, destroyed by a secret he’d kept to protect his relationship, and I was sitting across from him with a secret ten times worse.
One look at his face and I knew I couldn’t tell him. Not tonight. Not when he was already at rock bottom and barely holding himself together. Adding my betrayal on top of Harper’s departure might actually break him.
“I’m staying tonight,” I said finally, carefully moving Rory to her Pack ’n Play without waking her. “You shouldn’t be alone right now.”
“Thanks,” he said.
And that reaffirmed my resolve. Drew needed his best friend tonight, not another problem. Ava would understand why we had to wait.
I hoped.
I nodded toward the stairs. “I’m gonna grab a shower since I was at the gym when you called me, and then we can order some food.
” I headed for the stairs, then stopped.
“Drew? For what it’s worth, I think you did the right thing today.
Telling her the truth, I mean. I think most guys would’ve made excuses, but you didn’t.
You owned it. The old you wouldn’t have done that. You would’ve lashed out.”
Then I headed upstairs to the bathroom. I needed to shower—I still reeked of the gym—but more than that, I needed to call Ava.
She answered on the second ring. “Hey! My class just ended, so I’m heading up right now. Want to meet up early?”
The hope in her voice made my chest ache.
“We can’t tell him tonight.”
Silence filled the line for so long I wondered if the call had dropped. “Ava?”
“Why not?”
I sat on the edge of the bathtub and pinched the bridge of my nose. I filled her in on the bet and Harper leaving Drew.
“Oh my God. Is he okay?”
“He’s a wreck, Aves. Like, completely fucking destroyed. Rory was screaming when I got here, and he couldn’t even calm her down. I’ve never seen him like this.”
She was quiet for a moment, processing. When she spoke again, her voice was softer. “So we’re not going to tell him.” She said it like she understood, but I still felt like I had to explain.
“No. I’m sorry.” I scrubbed a hand over my face. “We can’t do it now. Not when he’s already falling apart. It would—”
“I know.” She cut me off. “I get it.”
“I’m sorry.” I’d already said it, but I felt like I need to say it again.
“Don’t be. He’s your best friend. He needs you.”
“I promise we’ll tell him. Just not when his world’s already falling apart, okay?”
She was quiet again before finally saying, “Okay.”
“I should go,” I said reluctantly. “I need to shower and then check on him. Make sure Rory’s still asleep.”
“Okay. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Bye.”
I ended the call and sat there for a moment, staring at the phone in my hand, thankful that she understood because I had no doubt that if she ever left me, I’d be as much of a wreck as my best friend downstairs.