Page 20 of Crash

Yeah, that’s what I thought once upon a time too.

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I swallowed down a fresh lump in my throat. I felt like a terrible person. Blake just savedmy life. The right emotions were to be nothing but grateful and kind to him, but my heart disagreed. It kept a record of every slight, every silence, every moment I’d waited for him to remember I existed.

“I thought so too,” I said. “But turns out, I was someone you could just discard.”

He recoiled as if I’d slapped him, hands clenching at his sides. His eyes searched mine, confusion and something deeper darkening his features.

“Tessa, I never discarded you.” Something rippled across his face. Pain? Regret? But it disappeared too quickly to read.

“Bull,” I said. “And the least you can do is tell me why.”

Blake’s hand found the back of his neck—his tell for emotional distress. If he thought I was going to break the long, long silence that elapsed? He was wrong.

“Can’t we leave the past where it belongs?” he questioned.

Belongs? How insulting.

“No.” The word shot out like a bullet. “You don’t get to push me away and pretend I never existed without explaining why.”

His Adam’s apple bobbed, and it took him for-freaking-ever to finally speak.

“Everything I did was to protect you.”

A harsh laugh escaped me, echoing off the sterile hospital walls. “Protect me? By blowing me off?”

Something shifted in his expression—just for a heartbeat—but it was enough to make me wonder if there was more to his abandonment than simple rejection. A reason he wasn’t sharing.

But if we had any hope of moving forward—and I had no idea if I wanted to move forward, by the way, let alone if he did either—we had to talk about this.

His career, however, disagreed.

His pager buzzed, and the way his shoulders tensed told me he couldn’t ignore it. Part of me wanted to grab his arm, makehim stay and explain himself. But he was a doctor. Saving lives would always trump my wounded heart.

And the way he kept inching toward the door, like a trapped animal seeking escape, only twisted the knife deeper.

“Just leave,” I said.

Blake’s chest rose and fell as he appeared to hunt for the right words.

Did he look pained, hurt even? Yeah.

But welcome to the party, Blake.

Then, just like he did two years ago, he did what he did best. He left.

14

TESSA

“You kicked him out?” Scarlett raised her brows, lounging in the corner chair she’d claimed as her territory.

The leather squeaked as she shifted, watching me pick at the dinner she’d brought. My favorite Caesar salad from Giovanni’s, the one with extra crispy croutons that usually had me fighting for every bite. The sun was starting its leisurely descent in the sky, painting orange stripes across my hospital bed.

“When you put it that way, I feel like an even bigger bitch than I already feel.” The plastic fork scraped against the container.

“Oh, please, you have every right to be upset.” Scarlett’s bangles clinked as she gestured emphatically.

“Upset, yes. But I didn’t handle myself as well as I wanted. I’d always envisioned having a calm conversation about what happened, not some emotional blowout.”