Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 79607 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 398(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79607 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 398(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
Second chances don’t come around very often. Third chances are even more rare. If you’re lucky enough to get one, don’t waste it.
I hope that when you become a father, you forget everything you learned from me. Love like your mother. Love like Briar. Love like you.
And most importantly, never piss in the wind.
Love, Dad
I drop the letter and attempt to sort out the emotions that slam into me all at once, fighting for the spotlight. I feel sad and angry and relieved and hopeful and…at peace. Closure. That’s what this must be. I feel like I can finally let go of it all. All of the loss, all the grief, all the bad.
For the first time in my adult life, I decide to take my father’s advice. I’m not letting my chance with Briar slip away. But first, I have some things I need to take care of.
Chapter 21
Briar
He’s gone. For good. I know this is what I wanted, or what I need to happen, rather, but it doesn’t make it hurt any less. Adrian admitted to me the other day that he’d been in contact with Asher. I wasn’t mad. I was curious. Maybe a little jealous, but not mad. My brother, on the other hand, has been a bit more stubborn. I can’t pretend to know what it would feel like to have my best friend lie to me, but I’d like to think that if the roles were reversed and Nat and Dash wanted to be together, I wouldn’t stand in their way. It would be weird and a completely different dynamic, but who am I to tell them what they can and can’t do? Dash argues that it’s different.
Adrian told Dash that Asher had gone back to River’s Edge a few days ago. I don’t know what I expected. For him to fight for me and pine for me forever? To stay in this town where he has almost no one? Of course not. But it stings.
I’m listening to “Glycerine” on repeat, feeling sorry for myself, when Adrian calls, interrupting my song.
“Hey, pretty girl,” he says, using his nickname for me.
“Hey, Ade.”
“What are you up to today?”
“I have the day off, so I’m just hanging out at Nat’s.”
“What do I have to do to get you to come have lunch with your favorite brother-slash-lover?”
I laugh, despite the morose mood I’ve been in for the last few weeks.
“Never say that again and you’ve got yourself a deal. Where do you want to meet?”
“I’ll text you the address. See you in an hour?”
“Sounds good.”
“Wear something sexy!” he shouts into the phone right before I hang up, and I catch myself laughing once again. Adrian is just good for the soul. Just like everyone should have a Natalia, everyone should also have an Adrian.
My phone says it takes forty-five minutes to get there, back in the direction of my house, so I pluck an olive-green T-shirt dress out of my suitcase and slip on my black boots before walking out the door.
Once I’m close, I pull out my phone to double-check the address. I’m led into a residential area, and I wonder if this is a shortcut or something, but as I turn the corner, it says my destination is on the left.
What the hell?
I’m most definitely parked in front of a house, not a restaurant, and I pull off to the side to call Adrian. But then I see him. Not Adrian. Asher. He’s standing in the driveway, his thick eyebrows pulled together, hands behind his back. Signature black jeans, a black V-neck, and black boots.
I’m not prepared for this. For seeing him again. For the way my stomach flips in response to him. I should drive away. I almost do, but something in his pleading eyes has me turning off the ignition and slowly opening the door.
I take a deep breath, trying to keep my emotions in check, as I walk up to him. We meet in the middle, and the look of relief on his face almost cracks my heart in two.
“What’s going on? Where’s Adrian?” I ask, knowing this is some kind of setup.
“I need five minutes. That’s it.” His dark hair hangs over one eye, and I want to brush it out of his face. To hug him. To be held by him. To nuzzle into his warm neck and take in the scent that belongs only to him. But I don’t do any of that. Taking my silence as permission, he licks his lips and exhales deeply before continuing.
“Sometimes, when you’re hurting so deeply for so long, you don’t feel anything at all anymore. And then something or someone comes along that gets under your skin, inside your blood, and makes you feel fucking everything again. And all of that pain that you never felt? It all comes flooding back. I didn’t know how to feel, Briar. Until you, with your big blue eyes and your heart on your sleeve. You made me feel everything, and I both loved and hated you for it. I wasn’t blessed with a perfect life, but I had you.”