Chapter 84
AVA - BIKER GETS THE GIRL
The air had that strange mix of chill and pollen that signalled spring in this town, too warm for jackets but still cold in the shade. I’d just left the clinic, a tea in one hand and my purse slung over my shoulder, when I spotted him.
Across the street.
Standing in front of the old church fence, hands in the pockets of his dark coat, eyes fixed on the clinic like he was trying to see straight through the brick.
Jack.
I stopped mid-step.
I hadn’t seen him in person since the cabin. Since the gunfire and smoke. Since the woman who tried to destroy our lives had been buried in the woods, where no one would find her.
Jack had disappeared after that. No note. No call. Just vanished.
We only knew he was still alive because we saw his press conferences.
And now here he was, like nothing had changed. Like he could still show up and plant himself in her orbit like he belonged there.
I crossed the street.
“Looking for someone?” I asked, voice sharper than I meant it to be.
He turned, that same familiar ache behind his eyes. Guilt and pride, guilt and longing. They warred in him every time he looked at Remi. Every time he didn’t.
Like his very being was split between ambition and the woman who burned too bright for him to hold onto.
“Just passing through,” he said.
“Right.”
He didn’t look at me. He was too focused on the sound drifting through the alley, the back gate of the clinic clicking shut, Remi’s laugh echoing through it. That soft, rare sound that felt like sunlight after too many storms.
And then Logan’s voice, low, teasing. A reply I couldn’t hear, followed by her laugh again, breathless this time.
They came into view just beyond the fence line, her hand in his.
.. she looked so small next to Logan. He looked back at her and pulled her close, wearing a smile that lit up his whole face.
Remi giggled... actually giggled and then pulled on her helmet, as Logan got on his bike.
He leaned back to kiss her, and she melted into him like it was the easiest thing she’d ever done.
Jack’s jaw clenched.
“So, the biker gets the girl,” he said bitterly. “And I... what? I’m just the guy who saved her. Who always has her back. Who loves her...”
I didn’t look at him right away. I watched Remi swing onto the back of the bike, her arms sliding around Logan’s waist like she belonged there.
“You’re the guy who left,” I said quietly. “And she’s the girl who didn’t ask you to stay.”
He flinched like I’d struck him.
“Fuck... I didn’t know how to fix it,” he said. “I didn’t know how to be what she needed.”
“She didn’t want you to be anything other than yourself, Jack.
That's what you never understood. What you never saw is that just as much as you wanted her to ask you to stay... to believe you. She wanted you to choose on your own, without her having to ask.” I turned toward him then, eyes sharp.
“And instead of showing up, staying... You ran. That’s not love. That’s fear.”
He ran a hand over his face. "God Ava... I was afraid. My whole life, I knew exactly what I wanted and who I wanted to be... and then I met her."
His eyes were locked on Remi, "I left like I did because it hurt to be around her and not be with her. It hurt that I was willing to give up everything I dreamed of to be with her, and she wasn't even willing to try."
I sighed, "Jack, you know exactly why she didn't. If she asked you to stay and you changed, if you resented her for it.
If you two became her parents... it would have felt like a betrayal to Jenny, to everything she overcame and has worked so fucking hard to get past. If she had to ask you to stay, in her mind that meant you were already gone.
.. and you running like you did showed her she was right.
That you were exactly who she thought you were.
.. and that's not saying that you are bad or what you want is bad, Jack.
.. it is saying that she saw you and wanted you to be exactly who you dreamed of being. .. regardless of her feelings for you."
He turned his eyes to me for just a moment and said, "I love her, Ava."
I whispered, "She loved you too."
He didn't miss the difference in the word... he sucked in a breath and said. “I’ll always be waiting. In case she needs me.”
My stomach twisted. God, I hated this, this feeling like the people I loved were always holding pieces of themselves back, waiting for something that may never happen.
“You’ll be waiting a long time,” I said.
The bike roared to life. Logan eased them onto the road, Remi’s arms tight around him, her face tucked against his back. She looked peaceful. Unburdened.
I hated that he gave her that.
I hated that I didn’t trust it to last.
That I didn't trust him, even if she did.
“They’ve been together three months,” I said softly. “She’s happy. I don’t agree with it. I don’t like him. But I need to support her in this.”
Jack groaned and turned to me, "You're just gonna let this happen?"
I met his gaze. “I told her my concerns, Jack, but if I push too hard, she will pull away. I won’t lose her over this. Over him.”
He gave a small nod, barely perceptible.
Then he turned and walked away.
No goodbyes.
Just like last time.
And I stood there, watching the bike fade down the street, heart in my throat and a prayer on my tongue: Please don’t let him be the reason she breaks again.