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“We were supposed to take care of you,” he whispered.

My breath hitched at the raw emotion I heard in Addison’s voice.

God.

God.

Fucking God.

What had I done to them when I walked away and refused to see them or take their calls? No, let’s be honest here, when I ran away from them? Admittedly, running away had been a natural reaction at the time, but I hadn’t thought about them and how they would feel when I did it.

“Addison, I’m…” My voice caught in my throat, forcing me to stop speaking. Not that I minded, I honestly had no idea what to say to him. I could apologize but I had a feeling that wouldn’t have meant a whole lot to him. Actions spoke louder than words and my leaving them for weeks on end had spoke louder than any apology I could utter now ever would.

He released me abruptly and stepped back, leaving me alone and cold. So very cold without his warmth wrapped around me.

My eyes burned and my throat convulsed as I watched him pull a shutter down, covering his eyes and hiding his true emotions from me. My heart beat wildly inside my chest as I bit down hard on my tongue, tasting sweet copper. I winced, knowing I’d made myself bleed. Blood was a whole lot better than tears.

“Abel is going to stay with you tonight,” Addison told me in a gruff voice. “I just really need to be alone right now.”

I bit my lips, blinking rapidly.

“Addison,” I choked out.

“Let him go, Ariel,” Abel said in a quiet, subdued voice.

Addison moved past me, heading towards the door.

I couldn’t leave things the way the were. I couldn’t let him walk away from me, not like this, not upset and angry, not with Abel looking so concerned for his brother.

Good, good, grief. I did not do well with this emotional stuff.

I thought about what to do.

Then, I thought to hell with it.

I spun around and flew after him, running. I caught up to him in the hallway and didn’t stop until I crashed into his back. I pressed the side of my head into the middle of his back, wrapped my arms around his middle and held on for dear life.

A deep breath shuddered out of me. I did not want to let him go. If Addison left now, I did not want to be left alone with Abel. I knew Abel wouldn’t blame me, but I’d seen his face when his brother had said he needed some time alone. Abel, the look on his face, he’d been crushed by his brothers need to be alone. As far as I knew, the twins did everything together. One of them had even gotten upset when they found out the other one couldn’t sleep at night and hadn’t bothered to wake up their twin. I didn’t want to be the reason they stopped doing everything together. And I cared about the both of them, so very much. I needed Addison to stay, for both Abel AND myself. I knew I deserved to see him walk away from me like

I had done to him, to all of them. But, the look on Abel’s face had told me he couldn’t handle watching his brother walk away.

I needed to make it right. I would do anything to make it right between us.

“Please,” I pleaded in a quiet voice. “Stay. Stay with Abel and me. Spend the afternoon with us. And, if you really, really, want to be alone, then you don’t have to spend the night with us. But, please, I beg of you, just spend the afternoon with me and with your brother. The three of us, we haven’t gotten to spend much time alone together. I would like to spend time with you.”

I held my breath, waiting for his response. I had put myself out there, something I usually avoided doing at all costs. What would putting myself out there cost me this time?

I held my breath and I waited.

Chapter Ten

Addison remained stiff in my arms, unmoving and making my heart sink to depths I did not even know I carried inside of me.

Now I’d really gone and done it. By putting myself out there with Addison, I feared I had only succeeded in making things worse.

Addison’s big body relaxed against me. His arms came up and he placed them atop of the arms I had wrapped around his middle. His big hands covered my small ones and he laced our fingers together.

“Alright,” he murmured. “I’ll stay with you two. I’m going to run home real quick, then I will be back. Okay?”