Thirty-One

Austin

What the fuck had just happened to my life?

I stood alone in Julia’s apartment. She’d just left me. I couldn’t believe it. After everything…she’d walked.

Landon cleared his throat behind me. “Hey, man.”

I didn’t say anything. I was still in shock. Dillon/Evan hadn’t been as shocking as Julia breaking up with me.

How could she have done it? She had to know how I felt about her. Not that I’d come straight out and said it, but I’d sure acted like it. Then, one fucking fuckup had torn the house down.

“Austin,” Landon said, putting his hand on my shoulder, “let’s get you home.”

“She left me.”

“I…I know.” Landon sighed. “She’s going through a lot. Just give her some time. She’ll come back around.”

“No,” I said softly. “You didn’t hear her. She was certain. This was it.”

“I know that’s probably how she sounded. Trust me, I’ve been there. I never thought Heidi would talk to me again after the whole thing with work, but I gave it time. It worked out.”

“This isn’t some work bullshit that we can throw money at to fix the issue. This is a fucking ex who did a number on her so much so that she doesn’t think she deserves to be loved. She just remembered what that feels like. She’s not going to change her mind in the morning.”

“Why don’t we wait until the morning to find out?” Landon said reasonably. “You can sleep this off.”

“I can sleep off the alcohol, and I can sleep off the pain, but I’m not going to wake up and suddenly be back with Jules. Not after everything that happened tonight.”

Landon sighed. “Maybe not. But you need to heal. So, we need to get you to bed. You can come to our house, too, if you want.”

“No, she doesn’t want me there.”

“Okay. Then…your place.”

I didn’t argue with him. I just got into the Uber he’d called and let him drop me off at my house. Landon followed me inside just to make that Dillon didn’t happen to be there. But it was empty. A little too empty.

“Call me if you need anything. And, Austin?” Landon said.

“Yeah?” I said, staring, unseeing, at my empty house.

“I’m really sorry about tonight. I knew that you shouldn’t drink. I could have stopped it. I should have stopped it, and I should have seen what was happening. This is my fault. Patrick and I feel really awful that this all happened.”

“Don’t go blaming yourself. Either of you. There’s plenty of blame to throw around, but none of it is yours. I took the beer from that fuckface. I walked right into his plan. He might have been the catalyst, but I was the idiot who fell for it.”

Landon nodded seriously. “Are you sure you don’t want me to stay?”

“No concussion. Just a fucked up body. I’ll be fine. Go home to your girl and…and take care of mine, okay?”

Landon sympathetically touched my shoulder once before departing.

At least Landon’s place had a state-of-the-art security system. Julia should feel safe there. Or safer at least.

Safer without me.

The next morning, my face was the size of a balloon, and I couldn’t tell where the pain started or ended. After a delirious, pain-riddled phone call, Jensen showed up bright and early. Thank fuck he was a vampire.

Jensen whistled when he saw me passed out on the couch. “You look like shit.”

“Thanks,” I said, dripping with sarcasm.

“Much worse than last night.” Jensen said. He’d shown up around the same time the cops had gotten there and dealt with the aftermath at the bar.

“Are you just here to make fun of me?”

“Isn’t that what older brothers do?”

I flipped him off and then winced, reaching for my fractured ribs.

He laughed. “Come on. We need to get you to a doctor. Noah’s at the hospital today. He said he’d fit you in.”

“Great. Can we go see Julia on the way?”

“Let’s get you something to help with the pain first. Figure out Julia after.”

I grumbled but let him help me off the couch and into his huge truck. Noah was Emery’s sister’s husband. He worked at the Texas Tech Medical Center and was an all-around great guy. I liked him. I liked him even more after he stopped prodding at my injuries.

“We could do an X-ray, but that rib is definitely fractured,” Noah said. “You’ll need a lot of rest and ice. Try not to breathe too shallowly. We want to make sure this doesn’t turn into something worse.”

“Rest. My forte,” I said with a sigh.

“I’ll write you a prescription for the pain. Your face has to feel horrible.”

“You’re telling me.”

“Kimber told me what happened,” Noah said with a shake of his head. “I hope you’re pressing charges against that guy.”

“Oh, I am. As soon as they find him, I’ll do everything I can to see him behind bars for what he did to Julia.”

“No less than he deserves.”

Noah handed me the prescription, we shook hands, and then I headed out. Jensen was still waiting for me, talking to one of the nurses he knew. Jensen knew fucking everyone.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Yeah. Let’s get this filled. Fuck.”

We finished the rest of the errands, and as soon as I popped a pill, I felt the worst of the bite of the pain subside. With a couple of weeks’ recovery staring me in my destroyed face, I was glad to have the pills.

“Be careful with those,” Jensen said.

“I’m using them as indicated.”

“Make sure you do.”

I rolled my eyes as he drove me to Flips to collect my car.

“Austin…”

“What?” I asked, halfway out of the truck.

“Be careful with Julia. She might need some time.”

“I’ll give her all the time she needs. But she went through one of the most traumatic experiences of her life. Would you have let Emery walk away after that?”

The answer was written all over his face. No, of course not. We were Wright men. We didn’t back down from anything, and we certainly didn’t walk away from our women just because they were hurting.

“Let me know if you need anything.”

“Sure, man. Thanks,” I said. Then, I shut the door and headed to my car.

I made it to Landon’s house in record time. I tried the door handle and was glad to see it was locked. I didn’t want Dillon to show up here and have easy access to Julia again.

Landon appeared a couple of seconds after I rang the doorbell. He wiped his hand down his face and yawned. “Hey. It’s early.”

“Yeah, Jensen picked me up at the ass-crack of dawn. How’s she doing?”

“She hasn’t come out of the guest room.”

I started to cross the threshold, but Landon put his hand out.

“She’s a guest here, Austin. If she wants you to leave, then you’re going to have to listen to her.”

“I’m your brother.”

“And, as your brother, I’m telling you not to do anything stupid to that broken girl in there.”

“I’m not going to do anything stupid,” I told him.

Landon gave me a disbelieving look, but he moved his arm. Heidi came out of the master bedroom in one of Landon’s golf T-shirts and short shorts. Her eyes were wary as they followed my progress toward the guest bedroom. It seemed that everyone thought it was a bad idea for me to talk to Julia.

I knocked twice and waited for her to say something. But there was no response. Maybe she was still sleeping.

“Julia?”

“Go away,” she said through the door.

“Can we talk?”

“What do we have to talk about?”

“Last night.”

“No,” she said firmly.

I sighed in frustration. “I’d prefer to talk to your face than through a door.”

“Go away, Austin.”

“Please, Julia.”

No response came from the other side of the door. She wasn’t going to talk to me. After everything, it was as I’d thought. She really meant what she’d said last night.

Then, slowly, the door cracked open, and beautiful dark eyes stared back up at me.

“You have five minutes,” she said. Then, she opened the door for me.

I could work with that.

Julia shut the door behind us once I was in the room. She went and sat down on the bed, but I could tell that sitting next to her would be pushing it.

“How are you feeling?” I asked.

“Tired.”

“Didn’t get much sleep?”

“No.”

“Have you heard anything else about Dillon?”

“No.”

Okay…one-worded answers. I needed a way to draw my Julia out of there. She looked so run-down and bedraggled. I’d be shocked if she’d slept at all. And, still…she was everything I wanted in one package.

“I want to make this right between us. Tell me what to do. What do you want me to do?”

She’d been staring down at her clasped hands. A million thoughts seemed to be running through her mind at once. Finally, she looked back up at me. “Leave.”

“Why do you push me away? Why can’t you accept that someone is going to be here? Because I’m here. I’m not going to just go away,” I said. I wanted her to fight me, to fight back, to show some ounce of life. “You said I wasn’t Dillon, and you’re right. Show me you’re more than that girl who got hurt by him.”

“I don’t have to show you anything,” she said quietly, calmly. “We’re not together.”

“I can’t accept that,” I said, dropping to my knees in front of her. “I’d take that beating a hundred times over if it meant that it didn’t end where we are right now. You’re fire and energy and passion. You’re not…dead inside.”

She turned her face away from me. No emotions clouded her eyes. I wasn’t even sure if she was in pain over my words. She seemed so resigned. As if the night had solidified everything that she’d said to me, as if she’d set cement.

“Your five minutes are up.”

“Julia, you’re not even listening to me.”

She held her hand up. “You’re trying to start an argument with me, Austin, and it’s not going to work. I made my decision last night. I’d appreciate it if you respected it. You told me once that love and hate were powerful emotions. You said that you had to work for indifference. So…that’s where I’m at.”

I stared, slack-jawed, up at her.

I’d always felt like, even when Julia and I had been apart, there was this link between us. That, when I could get her riled up, I knew she still had feelings for me. But, overnight, that had all disappeared. She wanted nothing to do with me, and I didn’t know how to fight for something that wasn’t there.

A vibration from the side table fractured her attention. She immediately lunged for her phone and answered it, “Yes. This is Julia.” She listened on the other end for a few seconds and then gasped. “I’ll…I’ll be right down.”

“What happened?” I asked once she hung up the phone.

She looked sick to her stomach. “The police found Dillon.”