Chapter Fifty-One
SUNNY
I stand at the island in Cole’s apartment, chopping mushrooms. My frantic heart makes it impossible to focus. I’ll be seeing Tyler for the first time since…everything.
With frequent work trips, he’s barely been present at family gatherings over the last two weeks. No doubt in avoidance to the ever continuing heartbreak that I cause. It seems to be a consistent trend of mine. Broken people break people—I’d warned him.
Tonight however, he’s supposed to finally make an appearance. Naturally, he’d be the last to show up, which does nothing to my ever growing nervousness. Staring at the mushrooms, I realize my hands aren’t even doing anything.
“Hey,” Cole says, putting an arm around my shoulders. “Do you want me to take over?”
I shake my head. “I just feel like this is my fault.” I look at him.
“Don’t blame yourself for his inability to control his emotional lows.” He shrugs. “His hero complex makes him think anyone who battles hardships needs saving.”
Something in his eyes tells me he knows more than he’s letting on. His loyalty to Tyler runs deep, and I know his words are to validate me regardless of the fact he doesn’t believe them.
“That is the truest thing I have ever heard.” Anthony takes a grape from a bowl and pops it in his mouth. “We all have our thing. That’s just his. It can be very good, and it can also be very bad.”
“Where the hell is he, anyways?” Sam sets her wine glass down on the counter.
Something tells me he is right outside that door, and the turn of the knob indicates I’m right.
It’s a feeling that happens in my chest I can’t quite name.
Something that I can only feel with him, or whenever he is around.
It bangs against my sternum with each beat of my heart, refusing to allow me to ever forget it exists.
He walks through the door, wearing a charcoal gray suit perfectly tailored to his body. Tense shoulders and a hard set jaw tell me his day at work was long.
His gaze flicks to me briefly, then back to the family. The slow roll of his throat catches my attention while he looks over the room, analyzing and preparing.
For what?
“There he is!” Anthony quips.
“Sorry I’m late.” He steps through the threshold cautiously.
He pauses there with the door still ajar while everyone stares at him. I can’t read what’s on their faces, just as much as I am unable to see whatever it is they see.
When I glance back to where he stands in the doorway, I watch as he ever so slowly turns around, grabbing red painted nails in his hand. Walking through the threshold right after him is blonde hair, brown eyes and a smile too pretty to exist.
Shelby.
I watch as he moves his hand to the small of her back, guiding her inside with every bit of caution, like he knows the explosion waiting to happen. And she is the fucking bomb ready to be detonated.
Or maybe I am the bomb that’s going to ignite, because…
Because…
My heart crumples in my chest when I see the glistening of the biggest fucking diamond I’ve ever seen in my life placed on Shelby’s delicate ring finger.