25
Charm
Ryan’s truck disappeared between the pines.
I remained in the middle of the driveway long after the sound of his engine faded. Snow soaked through my boots, and the cold worked beneath my coat, but my body refused to move.
Begging someone to trust you feels like shit, don’t it, mami?
I heard the words in his destroyed voice and saw the way he looked at me over the top of his sunglasses before pushing them back into place. Even that brief glimpse of his eyes had given me more than he intended.
Ryan had left his own trip to get away from me.
The lodge behind me was filled with our friends. Every detail visible through its enormous windows had been chosen and paid for by Ryan, designed around the people he loved.
I was the only person he no longer wanted inside it.
Boots crossed the porch and descended the steps before stopping behind me. The silence identified Briggs before he spoke. Nobody else could stand that close and make me feel small without trying.
“You planning to freeze out here?”
My throat tightened. “Maybe.”
“Seems dramatic.”
“I don’t know where I’m supposed to go.”
“The second cabin.”
“He doesn’t want me here.”
“He doesn’t want you near him.”
The distinction offered no comfort.
“I didn’t know the lodge was a surprise.” My voice broke. “I thought the cabins were just somewhere for all of us to stay.”
Briggs walked around me and stopped where I had no choice except to see him. His bruised jaw looked worse in daylight. His lower lip was split, and purple had spread beneath the skin near his chin.
Ryan had done that.
My eyes moved over the damage before I could stop them.
Briggs noticed. “Don’t.”
“Did he—”
“I said don’t.”
I pressed my lips together.
His coldness lasted several more seconds. Then he looked at my face, and something in his expression gave. I didn’t know what he saw. Regret, shame, or the consequences of six months spent protecting every fear except the man who loved me.
Whatever he saw appeared to be enough.
Briggs released a long breath and removed his sunglasses. “It’s a new day, Harlen.”
I stared at him.
“I’m here as your friend.”
The kindness broke through my numbness more violently than his anger had the night before. A sob caught inside my chest, and my knees finally lost the strength they had been borrowing from panic.
Briggs caught me before I struck the snow. “I’ve got you.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I know.”
“I’m so fucking sorry.”
“I know that too.”
He lifted me before I understood what he was doing, one arm beneath my knees and the other behind my back. My hands closed instinctively around his shoulders.
“Briggs, put me down.”
“Nope.”
“I can walk.”
“You’ve been standing in the snow for five minutes staring at trees.”
“Ryan just left.”
“I noticed.”
“He left because of me.”
“I noticed that too.”
Briggs carried me toward the lodge as though I weighed nothing. Halfway across the drive, he started whistling.
I lifted my wet face from his coat. “Are you seriously whistling?”
“You were making it weird.”
“You’re carrying a hysterical woman through the snow.”
“Exactly. Whistling establishes whimsy.”
Despite everything, a broken sound escaped me. It might have been a laugh.
Briggs glanced down. “Better.”
The front door opened before we reached the porch. Cade came outside without a coat and walked toward my car. Easton and Rider followed him, none asking Briggs why he carried me.
Cade opened the trunk and removed my suitcase. Easton collected the garment bag and smaller duffel from the back seat. Rider closed and locked the car doors before carrying my purse by its strap without looking at me.
His refusal hurt.
Rider had always been quieter than the others, but his silence had never felt like judgment. He kept his eyes on the porch while following us inside.
Bliss and Aura waited in the living room. Both women rushed forward as soon as Briggs lowered me onto the couch.
Bliss dropped beside me and wrapped both arms around my shoulders. Aura knelt in front of me, pulling off my wet gloves and enclosing my frozen hands between hers.
“What happened?” Bliss asked. “What did he say?”
I couldn’t answer. Ryan’s voice remained lodged too deeply inside my chest.
Briggs looked toward Cade. “I’m heading to the arena.”
Cade’s attention moved over the bruises covering his face. “Practice?”
“Yeah.”
Something passed between them that I didn’t understand, but Cade nodded. “Let him know we’ve got this. We’ll see him later.”
Aura looked up sharply. “Later?”
Briggs ignored the question. He retrieved his coat from the railing and started toward the door.
“Briggs.”
He stopped.
I didn’t know what I was asking him to give me. Forgiveness, information, or one more promise that he could stand beside Ryan and me without hating himself for choosing incorrectly.
“Is he okay?”
Briggs looked over his shoulder. “No.”
It was the same answer Cade had given me the night before. Neither of them would make Ryan’s pain easier for me to survive.
“Will you tell him I’m sorry?”
“No.”
I recoiled.
“You already told him,” Briggs said. “He knows you are.”
He opened the door and stepped into the cold.
Cade followed him onto the porch. They clasped hands before Briggs pulled him into a brief embrace. Easton and Rider did the same. The four men spoke too quietly for me to hear, but every nod and hand against a shoulder carried the same promise.
They were closing ranks around Ryan.
Briggs climbed into his SUV and drove away. When Rider returned inside, he walked directly to the pool table, removed the triangle, scattered the balls with one hand, and began racking them without looking at me.
Easton placed my bags near the stairs. “I’ll take those to the other cabin in a minute.”
“Thank you.”
He didn’t answer.
Bliss moved closer and pushed wet hair away from my face. “Tell us what happened outside.”
“He ignored me.”
Aura’s fingers tightened around mine.
“I kept trying to talk, and he looked through me. He spoke to Briggs like I wasn’t standing three feet away.
” My breathing turned uneven as I remembered the impenetrable black of his sunglasses.
“I told him I stood up to my parents after he left. I said I chose him, and he didn’t answer until I asked him to trust that I never meant to hurt him. ”
Cade closed the front door.
“What did he say?” Bliss whispered.
The words shredded my throat on the way out. “He said begging someone to trust you feels like shit.”
Aura’s eyes closed. Bliss pressed her lips together as tears gathered beneath her lashes.
“He’s right,” I whispered.
“Nobody said he wasn’t,” Aura answered.
“He should be here.” I looked around the lodge for the first time, taking in the vaulted ceiling, stone fireplace, and windows overlooking a lake covered in gray winter light. “This is his trip. He paid for all of it, and I made him leave.”
“It was a surprise,” Bliss said softly. “None of us knew.”
I looked at her.
“Ryan chose everything,” she continued. “The second cabin for Vivi. The huge kitchen because he knew we would all end up cooking together. Every room and every ridiculous game Briggs started screaming about the second he saw it.”
My eyes burned.
“He built it around you,” Aura said.
The truth split through the last intact place inside me. I folded forward, but movement near the hallway drew my attention before the sob could escape.
Cade had started collecting his bags. Easton retrieved his from the pile beside the stairs.
“What are you doing?” Aura asked.
“We’re staying at Ryan’s apartment tonight,” Easton said.
Bliss stood. “All of you?”
Rider struck the cue ball and sent it into the triangle. The crack traveled through the room.
“All of us,” he said.
My stomach dropped. “Why?”
Cade looked at me as he zipped the grocery bag he had never unpacked. “Ryan needs armor tonight.”
“What does that mean?”
His eyes lifted to mine. “You know what it means. You heard us outside.”
I pushed myself off the couch and caught his forearm before he could turn away. Cade looked down at my hand, and I released him immediately.
“Tell him to come back here,” I pleaded. “This is his trip. I’ll stay next door. I won’t come into the lodge while he’s here, call him, or try to talk to him again. Tell him he doesn’t have to sleep in his apartment because I showed up somewhere I wasn’t invited.”
Cade studied me for several seconds. “No promises.”
Relief and pain moved through me together. “Thank you.”
“We aren’t leaving yet,” Easton told Aura. “We’ll settle everyone in and head over after practice.”
Aura rose slowly. “You aren’t going anywhere.”
The room fell quiet.
Easton’s brows drew together. “Excuse me?”
“I said you aren’t getting involved.”
“I’m already involved.”
“This is between Ryan and Charm.”
“It stopped being only between them when Ryan made it clear he wasn’t fucking okay to every motherfucking one of us before she arrived.”
Aura flinched. “Charm needs us too, East.”
“You’re staying with her.”
“So, I’m expected to remain here cleaning up this disaster while you disappear to Ryan’s apartment?”
Easton’s expression hardened. “You aren’t cleaning anything up.”
“That’s exactly what we’re doing.”
“No. You’re sitting with your friend while she deals with what she did. I’m going to sit with mine while he deals with what was done to him.”
“I forbid it.”
The words left Aura’s mouth before she seemed to hear them. Easton became completely still, and even Rider stopped lining up his next shot.
“You forbid it?” Easton asked.
Aura lifted her chin, although the confidence behind the movement had already started failing. “You know what I mean.”
“No, Aura. I don’t.”
“I don’t want you making this worse.”
“By supporting Ryan?”
“By turning it into sides.”
“There are sides tonight.”
“That is exactly what I’m talking about.”
Easton walked toward her. He didn’t raise his voice, but something sharp entered every word.
“You don’t get to forbid me from standing beside my friend because it makes you uncomfortable.”
“I’m asking you to think about what this does to everyone.”
“I am thinking about it.”
“No, you’re angry.”