I started choking on my beer and had to force it down my throat before I spit it out everywhere.
“You good?”
I held up a hand and took two deep breaths after it was all down. “I, um, I can’t use that against Liv.”
“Of course, you can! You know she’s going to come after you with whatever she can get her hands on just to be a bitch. You need to have something against her, and now you do.”
“Yeah, but it goes both ways,” I whispered and stared at the carpeted floor.
“What does?” When I didn’t answer, he prompted me. “Brody. What does?”
“I’m—I was—having an affair,” I admitted softly, and heard Jace exhale.
“What. The. Hell. With who?!”
I shook my head and finally met his bemused stare. “It doesn’t matter.”
“The hell it doesn’t! We’ve been trying to get you away from Satan in female form and this entire time you’ve been with someone else?”
“Not entire. The last two months.”
“What—I don’t—how the f**k didn’t we kno—Oh, wait, actually, yeah, that makes sense now. You’ve been different over the last couple months. You and I just talked about that a couple weeks ago.”
“Yeah.” My chest felt like it was being ripped apart thinking about that day. I would give anything to do that all over again.
“Well, Brody, if we didn’t know, then chances are Olivia didn’t know.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. The day Ka—uh, the day she broke up with me, she’d seen Olivia that morning, and they’d talked. I don’t know what about, I never asked Liv. But the girl knew about how I’d told Olivia I wasn’t going to leave her, so I’m guessing Olivia knows about her.”
“Wait, whoa . . . back the f**k up. When did all this go down?”
“Ten days ago.” Ten of the longest f**king days of my life. I looked back up at Jace and explained, “That’s why I left so suddenly a week and a half ago.”
“Damn, Brody. And you didn’t tell me? So who is she? You said she knows Olivia?”
“No, I honestly don’t think she’d ever met Liv until last week.” Jace motioned for me to continue, and I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter who she is.”
“Yes, it does! Do I know her? Did we go to school with her?”
I blew out a hard breath through my nose and met his stare. “It’s because you know her that I won’t tell you her name. I can’t do that to her.”
“Come on—” He cut off when the front door opened, and his brow scrunched together. “What the hell happened to you two?!”
I turned around and was off the couch as soon as I saw the beautifully broken girl Kinlee had secured to her side. “Kamryn.” I automatically took a step closer to her.
Jace had been walking toward them and stopped when he heard me. “Who?”
“What did you just call her?” Kinlee’s tear-streaked face was full of surprise as she looked from me to Kamryn, and Kamryn tried to break away from Kinlee’s side as new tears quickly fell down her cheeks. “No, no. You’re not leaving.”
“You knew he was here and you didn’t tell me?” Kamryn cried and avoided looking at me as she continued trying to get free.
“Don’t go,” I pleaded, and Jace inhaled sharply next to me.
“Oh, shit, no way! KC’s the girl?”
Kinlee gasped. “You knew about it and you didn’t tell me?”
“I just found out! How long have you known, and why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I’ve only known for, like, ten minutes!”
Kamryn wrenched her arm from Kinlee’s grasp and took off for the door, with me right behind her. I caught her and slammed her body to mine before she could reach the door and held her as her body started giving way to sobs.
“Kamryn, I’m so sorry,” I spoke into her ear as I continued to pull her back closer to my chest. “I’ll never be able to explain how sorry I am for what I said to you and for letting you walk away from me.”
“I can’t do this with you,” she sobbed. “Please just let me go. You have to let me go, Brody.”
Knowing I was the reason for her tears was gutting me, and each word was like a new knife in my chest.
“I can’t let you go. I’ll do everything in my power to keep you with me for the rest of my life. So letting you go isn’t an option. I love you. I’ve loved you since you ran into me in this entryway. And I will love you until I die.”
“Olivia—”
“No Olivia. Just you and me. I told you, Kamryn, I’m gonna be yours forever. I know I f**ked up, but I will do whatever it takes for you to be mine again.”
Her cries filled the entryway, and her hands went to grip where mine were holding her tightly. “But you lied.” Her voice broke, taking my heart with it.
“I never lied to you. I don’t know what Olivia told you that morning, but I’ll tell you everything that happened and why I told her what I did. But I didn’t lie. And you were never a mistress. I had every intention of leaving her to spend the rest of my life with you. She made things complicated, and it was just going to take longer than I’d originally planned.”
“I can’t do this.” She huffed and pushed against my hands.