The second I threw down the gauntlet, I wanted to take it back. Swallow the words back down or smash them into little pieces with Titus’s hammer so they couldn’t come between us. Another wedge of foolhardy, immature passion that served no purpose but to enflame the other person.
Titus went deadly silent, the sun setting behind him and making his blond hair glow. His massive chest rose and fell like he’d run a marathon to have this argument with me. He shook his head, his gray-blue eyes looking as sad as the day his dog died freshman year.
“You still don’t get it. I’ve just been putting in time, postponing my life, until you saw me and the love I’ve always had for you. But you can’t because you’re too busy making sure everybody sees you. Or whatever badass façade you want them to believe in. When are you going to know that you’re enough, just as you are? With moments of bravery followed by weakness, flaws and talent, pettiness and maturity all rolled into one. When will you stop fighting so hard to be seen and just live your damn life, Lia?”
A searing pain shot up from my clenched stomach and into my chest. I wouldn’t have been surprised at all to see an arrow’s quiver sticking out of my chest after that verbal lashing. Titus had hit the bull’s-eye. The very truth I ran my mouth off to hide. And like the dumbass I was on occasion, I couldn’t back down, so I doubled down.
“Oh, that’s rich coming from you! When will you figure out that you’re enough too? You’re always running around saving people like you owe the whole town of Auburn Hill for having a fuckup as a brother. When are you gonna get that through your head?”
My voice echoed over the concrete slab witness to our argument. A bird let out a screech in a nearby tree, probably pissed we were interrupting his dinner. Someone honked in the roundabout leading into Main Street. The sounds of the town we grew up in were all around us, but there was nothing familiar about Titus and me being on opposite ends of a fight.
Titus gave me one last searching, pleading look and then walked off when he didn’t find what he was looking for. His heels kicked up a cloud of dust with each step away from me. I watched him go, stunned silent for once and far too late. The big engine in his truck fired up and he pulled away from the curb without a backward glance, leaving me alone in the darkening evening sky.
My anger diffused like a balloon that had a slow leak. I pivoted in a full circle, taking in the work Titus had put in on this lot the last few weeks. A huge stack of lumber had been delivered on one side, awaiting the framing that would happen soon. All that arguing and I still didn’t know what this project was. All I’d accomplished was possibly breaking up with the best thing that had ever happened to me.
“What the hell just happened here?” I mumbled to the shovel that lay abandoned on the dirt by my feet.
It didn’t answer me, and I’d never felt more alone. My stomach had dropped so far down during the shouting I felt hollowed out. Empty. A shell of the vibrant, kick-ass girl I normally was.
That just wouldn’t do. I lifted my chin, ignoring how it wanted to wobble, and forced myself to pick my way back to my car with my head held high. I’d be fine without Titus. We’d barely started dating. And quite frankly, if he was flirting with other girls so easily and keeping secrets from me, I’d just dodged a bullet by ending things now.
I should have felt relief. Freedom. Maybe a little disoriented by the sudden change in relationship status.
But all I felt was devastated.
23
Titus
“Give us the recap.”
It almost sounded like Jayden was in my living room. I could go check it out, but my limbs had just reached that perfect state of numbness. That state of drunk where everything feels good, but the room hasn’t started spinning yet. The alcohol sweet spot was as elusive as the spirit note. I couldn’t leave now that I’d found it. I snuggled deeper into my pillows and tried to turn up the volume on my phone. I made a new playlist this week. I called it Fuck You, Amelia. They were perfect, angry breakup songs.
“He spent all last weekend drunk, then had to eat an entire dozen of donuts to sober up enough on Monday to work. As soon as he got home tonight, he hit the bottle again. Figured it was time to call in reinforcements. He’s wallowing.”
I pried open one eye. Fuckin’ Rip. I wasn’t wallowing. Wallowing was for losers. I was merely partying on the weekends like a normal twenty-eight-year-old. You know, partying from my bedroom. Alone. Finding my phone down by my foot, I tried to focus on the volume button. I could have sworn I turned up the music to drown everything out.
“Is this about his brother being arrested again last weekend or is this about Amelia?’
Fuck. Even Bain was here. Didn’t they know this was a goddamn solo party?
“Probably both, but mostly Amelia. They broke up from what I could get out of Titus. Although Dom calling
