“Ari, come on,” Mason snaps, and together, they all move down the yard toward the sidewalk. “Get back over here.”
“Arianna, wait!” Chase calls next, and I grip my temples.
“Back the fuck up!” Mason screams.
“I’m going to grab her!”
“You’re not going anywhere near her!” he booms. “Ari! Where are you even going?!”
Shaking my head, my vision blurs.
I don’t know.
I can’t think.
“Don’t make me lay you out, Chase, because I fucking will.”
“Fuck you, Mason.”
“You guys stop!” Cameron screams. “Mason let him go!”
I squeeze my eyes shut, blocking them out.
I can hardly breathe.
I have to find Noah.
I want to talk to him.
I need to tell him I know what I want.
That it’s him.
I need to tell him that I love him.
Noah
* * *
My feet stop, and I bend, putting my hands on my knees. My chest pounds furiously, and I try for a deep breath, but it’s easier said than done.
The second I saw Ari’s text come through, I was a six pack in, but I knew I had to get to her, so I locked my truck up and started running.
I ran for no less than five miles without stopping.
My breathing calms a bit, so I stand and as I get a few feet farther, shouting reaches my ears. I look up, squinting past the last couple houses before mine, and that’s when I see her.
Ari, clutching her stomach, as she takes backward steps.
I jog toward her, my eyes widening when I spot Mason and Chase shoving at each other, and Mason throws a punch, screaming in Chase’s face, but I stop at the edge of the sidewalk.
“Mason, let him go!” Cameron yells.
I step from the sidewalk, ignoring them.
“Juliet,” I call to her.
Her body jolts upright, as if she’s slammed into an invisible wall, and slowly, she finds me.
Her lips part, a broken cry slipping from her lips. “Noah…”
The longing in her tone about wrecks me, and I clutch my chest.
Baby…
Her shoulders hunch in apprehension, her arms wrapping around herself as if readying for a blow, in case I serve her with one, like I did the other day.
Like I’ve done the last week.
My Juliet, I hurt you, too.
Regret burns through my every vein, and I glance at Mason and the others.
At Chase, who stands not ten feet from me, both his lip and right brow split open. They stand at the edge of the grass, tension whirling in the air around them, both looking from me to her, to each other. I don’t know what I walked up on, but I don’t care.
I turn to my girl, lifting my phone into the air, and her body sags.
She faces me fully now, her words a hopeful whisper, “You got my message?”
I nod. “I did.”
“And you came.”
My lips twitch, and I nod again. “I should have come sooner.”
Tears fall from her eyes, and a broken chuckle slips from her. “It’s okay. Just don’t do it again,” she teases, but it’s not enough to hide the pain in her voice.
Pain that I fed, fearing I was the only one who felt our loss.
I wasn’t. She felt it.
She feels it.
She’s mine.
“Never, baby.” My chest clenches. “Never again.”
The back of her hand comes up to cover her mouth, and she sniffles as I step around the old truck at the curb.
Her arms fall to her sides, and she smiles, and then she breaks out into a run.
I chuckle, but then a flash catches my eye.
My head snaps left, panic erupting within me.
I dart forward. “No!”
“Ari!” Mason shouts, Cameron’s scream echoing around him.
Arms wrap around my shoulders, and I’m yanked backward.
In the same second, the squeal of brakes pierces the air, followed by a boom so loud it shakes my core. Screams fill the air, and I tear free of the body behind me.
Shattered glass fills the street, cutting up my knees and hands as I crawl through it, my body lurching forward as I reach the crunched-up bumper of the old pickup.
A scream tears through me, and suddenly, others are falling beside me.
Someone clutches my shirt.
Someone cries.
Someone pleads.
I don’t move.
I can’t breathe.
All I can do is stare at the girl I love lying lifeless in the center of the street.
Chapter 37
Noah
* * *
Seven hours of no news is excruciating, but the four that follow, when the nurse finally comes up to tell us there’s been a complication, are the worst.