I circle the hospital with the intent of going back in as soon as Liesa leaves. Kylie is alone in there, waiting for news about Diana. She needs me.

I admit, in the last year I haven’t been the kind of guy who’s there in a pinch. After Lexi left, I’d given up on everyone. Including myself.

But Kylie makes me believe again. In the goodness of people, in the power of love. I want to be here with her. To help her and take some of the weight off of her. More than anything, I want to take care of her.

I park as far from the light posts and doorway as possible and wait for Liesa to leave. I decide to give her ten minutes. If she doesn’t appear in that time, I’ll assume she’d taken off while I drove around.

I pull the key from the ignition and my hand reaches for the door latch when Liesa saunters out, the swishy fabric of her pants rippling around her. A taxi arrives right on schedule, as if she’d called her private magic carpet. In no time she’s whisked away, and I bound for the ER entrance.

I burst inside, searching for Kylie. My heart jumps and thuds to the bottom of my stomach when I spot her in the corner. Wrapped in Blake’s arms, her face buried in his chest. He holds her protectively, head bent to hers. I want to rip her away from him. Maybe rip his throat out.

I want to be the one she needs. Keeping a lid on my jealousy, I approach them. “Do you have any news?”

She stiffens and raises her head. Her eyes are red-rimmed and her face pale and tense. She sniffs and separates from Blake. “Nothing. It’s been more than an hour.”

I reach for her hand, but she jerks it behind her. Is it because Blake is here? She doesn’t want him to know we’re together? A knot twists in my gut. After the time we spent in her room, after her saying we weren’t just fucking, did she really want Blake and not me? “I don’t know about ruptured spleens. But surgery can take a long time. It’s going to be okay.”

I nod to Blake as a way of saying hi. He sticks out his hand and shakes mine. In another life we might be friends, but right now, he’s standing between Kylie and me and I want to kill him. “Thanks for being here for Kylie and Diana.”

I can’t help myself and stretch my arm to drape it around Kylie’s shoulders and draw her to me.

She pulls away again, her gaze sliding away me while she swallows and blinks, as if summoning power. When she speaks, her voice is strong. “Thank you for the ride. We’ll be fine now that Blake is here.”

I feel my entire body go stiff. My chest tighten. My fists clench. Hadn’t we been together, naked in her bed, only hours ago? I promised to figure this thing out with Jonas. That we’ll be together permanently. She seemed to want that as much as I do. But now it’s like she barely knows me.

Doesn’t want to know me.

“I’ll stay. Is there a cafeteria or vending machines around? Do you want something to eat or drink?”

She slips an arm through Blake’s and tucks into his side and I want to wrench her away. He looks surprised but stands firm with her. It should be me holding her. Me she’s leaning on.

“You hardly even know Diana,” she says, sounding harsh. “You don’t belong here. You should go.” She shifts her attention to the floor.

What’s going on? She clung to me minutes ago. “Okay—if that’s what you want.”

“It is.” She says it, but it doesn’t sound like she means it.

Blake watches us. He doesn’t know about what happened this afternoon. Doesn’t know that things have changed between us. There’s obviously something happening here—something bad—but Kylie is the only one who knows what it is.

Fuck that.

I walked away from her once.

I’m not doing it again.

I lean closer. “Kylie, look at me.”

She hesitates and when she lifts her eyes to mine, they look bleak.

“What’s going on?”

“Diana was beaten up and I don’t know how bad of shape she’s in. It’s not all about you.” Her tone heats and twists, her gaze narrowing on my face. “But you wouldn’t know that, would you? Because for you, Zach is all that matters.”

My gut heaves and roils and I have to fight the urge to double over, like she kicked me in it. “I’m here for you. I want to help.”

“You can’t.” Her pallor slips and sadness haunts her eyes. “Drive back to your fancy condo on Seven Mile Beach. You don’t belong here. You’re never going to belong here.”

I glance at Blake, hoping he can help me, or even make some sense of it.

He studies Kylie for a second, then extricates his arm from hers. He clasps my shoulder and tugs me away from her, toward the door.

“Dude,” Blake says. “You’re making it worse. Let’s go.”

“Don’t fucking touch me—dude.” I jerk my shoulder out from under his hand. I’m over-reacting. Making things worse—I know that, but I can’t just let it go.

Let her go.

Not after this afternoon.

Because he really a good guy, Blake doesn’t take the bait. He just drops his hand and looks at me while he struggles to keep himself in check.

“Look, I don’t really know you. You seem okay—more or less—but you’ve obviously got some shit going on, big Liesa’s Life-sized baggage.” When I don’t respond he continues. “Kylie’s been through a lot. I don’t think she’s over losing her mother and she lost a job she loved. She doesn’t know what she wants in her life. If you care about her, you’ll do what she’s asking you to do and leave her alone.”

Even though it kills me to admit it, Blake knows her better than I do. I consider Blake. Calm and friendly, like the old black lab we had when I was a kid. He allowed us to crawl all over him, followed us around to keep us from harm, and only when we were really out of line, did he growl.

Blake is growling now.

On the other side of the glass, Kylie sinks to a hard, plastic chair next to an elderly black woman with a colorful scarf wrapped around her head. Kylie leans forward with her elbows on her knees and buries her face in her hands. “Go back to her,” I say to Blake. “She shouldn’t be alone.”

Blake bobs his head before turning on his heel, making his way back into the waiting room. He takes the seat next to her and puts an arm around her, bending low and saying something. Whatever he says, pulls a smile out of her. It’s short and watery. Crumbles away before it can take root, but it was there. She smiled at him.

I slump back to my car.