Page 156 of Stay Wild Darlin’

“I’m addicted to the high. To him. It’s wearing off now, and all I can think about is how to steal her—how to take her, just so you’ll pay up. So I can score. That’s where my head goes now. That’s how my fucking brain works.” Her voice cracked, but she didn’t stop. “That’s how it got rewired.”

She pressed her fist to her chest, as if she could dig out the sickness and hold it up for us to see.

“We can get you help,” Fable said softly.

“You don’t get it. I don’t want help.” Her eyes darted toward the road, panic bleeding in. “I need to get outta here. He’s going to be pissed that I’m late.” Her hands trembled. “Fuck. I fucked it all up. I didn’t mean to— I wanted to see her, I wanted to touch her.” She exhaled a shaky breath. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, again and again, until the words barely held meaning.

She stumbled through the door, and all I could do was hold Cora tighter and pray that next time, there wouldn’t be a next time.

She paused and looked back once more. “Are you even old enough to be raisin’ a kid?”

It was our joke.

The one she’d thrown at me a hundred times over the years.

I swallowed hard, my chest tightening as I looked at her for what was probably the last time. Somehow, through the ache in my ribs and the lump in my throat, I managed a small, sad smile. “Are you even old enough to pretend this doesn’t break your heart too?”

“Touché,” she muttered. “Take care, Dalt. I-I’m sorry.”

She turned and stepped out into the fading light before she disappeared completely.

I didn’t move because I couldn’t.

Tears slid down my face before I even felt them.

Not for her, exactly, but for the girl she used to be. For the friendship we lost somewhere between growing up and falling apart.

And for Poppy.

Who had walked out earlier without knowing how much I wanted her to stay. Who I loved more than I’d ever loved anyone. Who I might’ve lost too.

I looked down at the little girl in my arms—my daughter, the reason I kept standing—and it all crashed at once.

It was Cora’s birthday. It was supposed to be a celebration, but instead, everything was slipping through my hands.

I turned around.

Beau, Fable, and Harleigh were standing there silently as I fell apart.

I dropped to my knees, and tears spilled fast and without warning, hot and heavy as my chest caved in.

Fable stepped forward gently, not saying a word as she slipped Cora from my arms.

“I’m gonna take her back down. We’ll celebrate with the rest of our friends.”

I barely heard her.

The tears didn’t stop.

Beau knelt on the floor beside me, his hand clapping over my shoulder.

“You did the hardest thing, man.”

“It hurts,” I gasped, clutching at my chest. “Beau, it hurts.” I blinked up at him. I thought I was having a damned heart attack. “P-Poppy?”

Harleigh crouched beside us and pulled out her phone. “Let me call her.”

I couldn’t hear anything after that.