Page 112 of All This Time

Rhonan’s eyes drift to me for a second then back to his friend. “Yeah. I’m not going back.”

“What?” I practically shout and then lower my voice once I realize I’ve drawn people’s attention. “When did you plan on telling me this?”

Rhonan clenches his teeth. “We can talk about this later.”

“No, we can talk about this now. You can’t quit school.”

He steps closer to me. “Yes, I can, and I am.”

I open my mouth to argue with him, but Fletcher walks up to the three of us, and my words get caught in my throat.

“Hey, man,” he says to Rhonan. “You hanging in there?”

“The best I can, man.”

Fletcher’s eyes move over to me. “How are you doing?”

But before I can reply, Brittany comes up behind him, placing her hand on his shoulder. “There you are. I was wondering where you ran off to.”

He doesn’t look back at her, his eyes still trained on me. But seeing them together, hearing the ownership in her voice makes the crack in my heart completely split in two.

I divert my gaze from his. “Fine.” I think that’s only the fifth word I’ve said to Fletcher sincethatnight, but right now, it’s all I can muster without the threat of getting sick on the floor in front of everyone.

When Fletcher woke up and found me and Rhonan crying on the couch, holding each other, he instantly knew something was wrong, and after crying all night overhim, I was surprised that my body still had any tears to spare. But losing my mom was a pain I was not ready to face at the age of eighteen, especially on top of the heartbreak that the man standing in front of me was responsible for.

Rhonan and I left for Carrington Cove later that day, and when we were reunited with our dad, the three of us broke apart together. What was supposed to be a trip away ended with our mom dying from a brain aneurysm—something that no one could have predicted.

After losing her, though, the thing with Fletcher doesn’t matter now. Nothing does, as far as I’m concerned. Without my mom here, life has lost meaning. Without my mom here to help me heal from heartbreak, it’s easier to focus on anger.

But seeing the pain in Fletcher’s eyes is almost too much to bear, especially because I know how much he loves our parents and appreciated our mother.

“Fuck. I just wish these people would leave,” Rhonan mumbles to the boys.

Elliot and Fletcher share a look. “Say the word and we’ll clear them out,” Elliot declares.

“Seriously?”

Fletcher nods. “Yeah. If you two aren’t feeling up to this, you don’t have to smile and act like you want to talk. If I were you, I would want to be alone too.”

Rhonan looks at me for approval, which I give him with one nod. “I just want to be alone, Rhonan. I don’t know where Dad is, but he’d probably feel the same.”

He turns to his friends. “We’ll be in the office,” he tells Elliot and Fletcher before grabbing my hand and pulling me down the hallway. When we enter, we find our father crying at his desk. And so we lock ourselves in my parents’ office and break apart in solitude, where I cry myself to sleep with my head in my brother’s lap and pray that I wake up from this nightmare, even though I know that won’t happen.

Chapter 21

Laney

Present Day

The Truth and Taking It

There it is. Everything I’ve kept buried for twelve years, just sitting between us. Fletcher stands across from me in my kitchen, his hands clenched at his sides. But the look on his face is the same one he had right before he kissed me in my office.

“So, this is why you cut me out of your life?”

Suddenly feeling self-conscious, I wrap my arms around my waist. “Yes, Fletcher. You—you broke my heart on the worst night of my life, and—”

He closes the distance between us, pinning me up against the cabinets much like he did the first night he came to my house. “You listen to me, Laney Hart, and youlisten good.”