Stacy

You know how, when things get really bad and you just want to feel something other than pain again, you sometimes do stupid things?

I did stupid things.

Well, one stupid thing. But it was a doozy.

I didn’t intend to do it, not really. I mean, I turned on my phone to see if Maverick or Macy had contacted me. Totally innocent, right? I was lonely and sad and unsure what to do. I was also tired of avoiding them and figuring I should act like an adult. So I turned on my phone.

And the first text that popped up was from Chad.

I shouldn’t have done it. I should have ignored his stupid message and carried on with my plan. But I didn’t. I was weak and hurting and needing someone, anyone, to be in my corner. So no, I didn’t ignore him.

I texted him back.

Nothing dirty, no offers to hook up or anything like that. A simple note of “It’s been a bad week. I’ll talk to you later.” Which seemed so innocuous and safe at that moment.

And then I saw all the texts from Macy and Maverick and even Chloe. I saw how upset they all were, how much they seemed to care about what was going on with me. I saw their concern, and I knew I’d screwed up.

Especially when reading the texts from Macy.

Macy: Dumbass. Why’d you race out of here that way? The guys were arguing about tools, and you went nuts. What happened?

Oh, shit. Tools. Defective tools. Maverick had been holding on to something big and yellow when I walked in, but I wasn’t sure what it was. Nor did I take the time to find out. I really was a dumbass.

Macy: I’ve got labs and study sessions all week. Please call me so I know you’re okay.

Macy: I’m going to fail my finals. I’m skipping one on Wednesday if you don’t get back to me. I mean it.

It was Wednesday. My sister, the studyaholic and overzealous future doctor, was about to skip a final because I’d been too hurt to talk to her. I needed to call her. So I did.

“Hey.” Simple, but the only greeting I could get out at the moment. I knew she’d be pissed.

“You are such a dumbass.”

See? Pissed.

“Don’t skip your final,” I said, my voice soft even to my own ears.

“I’m not. I was seriously going to, but Hudson got all growly with me about it.”

I huffed. “The fun of dating an alien, right?”

Macy was silent for a long, almost tense moment. I closed my eyes, waiting for something. I’d almost forgotten we hadn’t talked about that fact. I’d gotten so caught up in Maverick and trying to find my place in his life that I’d neglected my twin. That was new.

“Is that why you ran off?” Macy finally asked. “Because he told you?”

“No. I knew before our weekend together was over.”

“And you’re okay with it?”

Was I? I gave that question the attention it deserved. It wasn’t a hard answer. “Yeah, I am. I wish you would have told me about Hudson, though.”

“I know, and I’m sorry. The guys are cautious with who can know about them. I would have told you eventually, but it all happened so fast.” Something clicked in the background, a thump that sounded an awful lot like a door closing. But she didn’t make mention of anything. “So if it wasn’t the whole not-from-around-here thing, what made you storm off the other day? What happened? You never gave anyone a chance to explain anything.”

My eyes burned, and I pulled a blanket around my legs as I curled into the corner of the couch. Hiding. “I thought they were talking about me. And you. About my scars and me being…less.” I took a deep breath, fighting to get the words out that were the worst. “About sharing or trading or something.”

Macy was quiet for a long moment before she sighed. “You know I’d never even think about such things.”

“I know you wouldn’t, but they’re guys. It’s almost ingrained to think stuff like that.”

“One, no, it’s not. You really need to spend some time around decent men. And two, our Reithhar men don’t think that way. At all. They are not human. If I told Hudson I wanted to have sex with another man or woman in our bed—”

The roar that came from the other end of the phone hurt my ears and practically made my phone vibrate. Apparently, that noise I’d heard was Hudson entering the room with Macy. Wonderful.

“See?” Macy said once all was quiet once more. “No possibility of threesomes or moresomes. Maverick wouldn’t want that. He wouldn’t want anyone but you.”

Ugh, that last statement was like a knife to the heart. Her words rang so true in even my addled head that I couldn’t deny them. Maverick had said that to me, had promised me that was not what he’d ever want. They’d been talking about defective tools, and I’d assumed they were talking about me. And worse, I acted on that assumption without asking what was going on first. Which meant I was an idiot.

“I screwed up.”

“Yup, you totally did,” Macy said. “You should call Maverick so you can fix this.”

“I should,” I said, pulling the blanket over my head. Creating a cocoon of safety as I asked her a question I was sort of afraid of knowing the answer to. “Will he even answer my call, though?”

Macy didn’t answer me because she didn’t need to. From somewhere over the line, from what sounded like he had to have been standing in the same room with her, Maverick said yes.

And that yes was more soothing to my frazzled nerves than anything else could have been.

“Will he come over so we can talk?”

There was a silent pause, one long enough to make me feel sick. To bring back all those feelings of dread and loss. One that I couldn’t stand to sit through for long.

“Macy?”

“He left,” she said. My world stopped, tears falling down my cheeks as those words reverberated through my mind. He left. Like, left or left? Because there was a difference in how far his leaving would take him.

“Where?” I asked, squeezing my eyes closed to keep the sound of crying out of my voice. “I wanted to talk to him. Where’s he going?”

“He didn’t say, but if I were to guess, I’d think he was on his way to your place.”