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Chase jerks to a stop, his brows drawn in confusion as he looks at the two of us.
“Uh…hey.” He nods at Mason, and slowly, his eyes come back to mine as he lifts the little bag in his hands. “Brought the shakes.”
I swallow, fingers digging tighter into Mason’s top.
“What’s going on?” Chase asks cautiously, his eyes moving back to his best friend’s.
Tension tugs at my chest, and I force myself to look to Mason, but his eyes are still pointed at the newcomer.
“What’s wrong?” Chases pushes.
Mason’s muscles flex against me, and my stomach churns at the blank sheet of his expression.
“Mase,” I breathe.
Gently, with movement so slow it tears at something within me, he removes his arm from around me and his hand from my face, and lastly his fingers latch around my hand, untangling my grip on his wrist. He steps back, and only when no part of him is touching me do his brown eyes drop to meet mine.
“You called…him?” He speaks the words so low, I almost miss them. With a slight shake of his head, he stumbles back a step.
“Mase.”
He looks away.
“Mason.”
He shuffles farther away, and acid bubbles burst in my gut. When his cleats meet the sand, he starts to run.
I jerk forward, a barbed wire wrapping around and puncturing my lungs. Panic sets in, and I launch myself toward the stairs “Mason!” I scream.
But he doesn’t answer.
He’s gone now, too.
I fall to my ass and cry until I pass out.
Just like I did on this very same nightexactlyone year ago today.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Payton
Before,July
Numb.
I feel…nothing.
“There’s been an accident.”
Nate’s voice plays on repeat in my head, over and over, and it doesn’t stop. Not on the three-hour drive to the hospital, not in the elevator on the way up to the fourth floor.
Not when my brother whispers words I don’t hear in my ear, and not when Mason bends and puts himself eye level with me. His are sloped, lips moving, but if he’s speaking, I have no knowledge of it.
“There’s been an accident.”
“There’s been an accident.”
“There’s been an accident.”
