Breaking the Rules
Page 64

A rush of adrenaline and anger pushes into my veins. “What did you do, Mia?”
“Nothing, but I should have. My boy—” she points at Echo and I lower her hand to keep Echo from noticing, but Echo peers over the moment my hand touches hers “—did the same thing. After he became focused on school and started to get bored with me. I brought him to a party and he was all downer. At one point, the look on his face...”
Tears dot Mia’s eyelashes, and her lower lip trembles. Damn. She’s one of those emotional drunks. “He was disgusted with me.”
I check on Echo again, and she pours the remains of her drink to the ground. Echo then stands and brushes the grass off her ass. She starts for the cars, and my heart stops. Beth jerks to life, and she calls Echo’s name. Echo hesitates then crouches next to Beth. There’s at least fifty high guys here and my girl doesn’t need to be alone.
“Now you’re interested in Echo?” Isaiah says beside me.
“Go away,” slurs Mia. “That girl is no good for him. It’s ending between them, and neither one of them wants to admit it. But it’s there. The last sign is there.”
“What sign?” I stare at her like she possesses the most important answer in the world, and Isaiah glares at her like she’s a threat.
“Remember me?” she says with a sly smile to Isaiah, ignoring my question.
“Private conversation going on between me and him,” Isaiah replies.
Mia snort-laughs and points to the tree line. “I’ll be over there having a good time being bad. Come find me, Noah, if you want the answer to that question.”
Mia rams and shoulders her way through a group of people talking and disappears. I glance back at Echo, and she’s still talking to Beth.
“She shouldn’t be alone,” I growl.
“No, she shouldn’t. Your ass should be over there next to her doing that smooth wooing shit you’re supposed to be so good at. And while we’re on the topic of what you should and should not be doing, you sure as hell shouldn’t be chatting it up with one of the girls you screwed last year.”
Isaiah’s shoulders circle back, and he lifts his chin. Damn if he’s not willing to take a swing in Echo’s honor.
“Does Echo know about Mia?” I ask.
“That’s what you’re concerned about? Whether or not she knows you’re spending time with a past fuck?”
“Mia’s hounding me, not the other way around. I’m asking because I don’t want Echo hurt. She thinks every damned mistake I made is over a thousand miles away. For one short period of her life, Echo didn’t have to walk down the street wondering if I hit the next girl she passed.”
“Real noble, Noah, but she’s bleeding without the past-mistake checklist. Get your ass over there and fix whatever the hell is going on.”
“She’s leaving me!”
“Leaving? She’s been waiting for you to get your shit together.”
I step into him. “That Hunter bastard is offering her the world! What do I got to give? Nothing. I’ve got nothing.”
Isaiah slams his finger into my biceps. “She looks at you like you’re the whole universe! I’d kill to have a sliver with Beth of what you have with Echo. Wake the fuck up!”
I pound my hand to my chest, mimicking the pain slicing it. “Echo’s leaving me.”
“No, man. You’re the one leaving her,” he seethes. “Get it together or she will walk.”
Isaiah turns away, toward Beth, toward my girl. Echo lifts her head when Isaiah approaches. Her eyes wander past him and meet mine. The pain Isaiah referred to, it’s there as a shadow on her face.
Three months ago, I held Echo in an ER and promised her that I’d never let her down. Two nights ago, I made that promise again. The question I never imagined her asking me is out on the table and the truth is, I don’t know if I can choose living here for a year with Echo...giving up a scholarship to school...giving up a possible relationship with my brothers.
Fuck it...I do know the answer. I can’t. If she chooses Colorado, I’ll choose Kentucky, and then we’ll both choose a long-distance relationship. That would be tough enough without this doubt weighing over me of whether Echo’s moving past us as a couple.
I wouldn’t put it past Echo to choose Kentucky to please me, and I can’t allow that—especially if Mia is right. Echo and I could be on the downhill slide, fighting the inevitable. By dragging her up a slick mountain of mud, I could be costing Echo her career.
Running a hand through my hair, I break the connection with Echo and search for Mia.
Echo
Noah tears his gaze away from mine, and it’s like he’s torn my heart in two. I press my hand over my chest as if that could stop the pain. What’s worse than the dizzying nausea shooting through me is that he’s heading in the direction of the girl that he talked to, the one that he touched.
Disoriented and fighting a dry heave, I spin in the direction of the car. Isaiah moves in front of me. “Where are you going?”
“I don’t want to be here anymore.” My thoughts bounce as I try to think of a way to leave for the hotel without abandoning Isaiah, Beth and Noah. “I don’t want to be here. I can’t be here. I just...need to go.”
A long walk can do me good, even though it will be dark and I’ll be completely alone, but if I stand here any longer I’ll lose my mind. I giggle, a bit of hysteria bubbling up. My mind broke once before, and Noah was the one who helped me put it back together. Funny how life changes.
I step, and Isaiah steps with me. “Let me get Noah, and we’ll leave together.”
One beer. I’ve had one beer, but I feel crazy and out of control. “He wants this party, and I want to go so I’ll walk or call a cab or something, but Isaiah, I can’t stay here.” I jerk my keys out of my pocket and dangle them. “Take this and let me go.”
Because I’m a stupid moth drawn to destructive flames, I look over my shoulder, and Noah fades into the darkness.
I shiver. From the dread forming into a lead ball in my stomach, to how the way he walks reminds me way too much of Aires leaving me. The last time I watched Noah walk away like this, I ran after him, but this time...the ache inside me slashes further, creating a hole.
“He went after her,” I snap. Like Mom chose her art, like Dad chose Ashley, like...
Isaiah forms a T with his hands. “It’s not what you think.”