My mom.

Eric.

My dad.

Jason.

Even Claire.

All of them.

I was okay, and that was because Logan had healed me. For that reason alone, I loved him.

I stopped—right there, right then—in the middle of the sidewalk. It was as if I’d hit a cement wall. I gasped for breath, feeling my insides smashed and jumbled up.

I loved Logan.

I couldn’t move.

I loved Logan…

I gasped for breath.

Holy shit.

LOGAN

I couldn’t move. Fucking hell. Somehow Taylor had just ripped me all the way to my core, and I couldn’t even fucking breathe.

“Hey—”

“Stop,” I cut the girl off. I didn’t want to hear it. She was going to cut Taylor down, and I wouldn’t have it.

“What?”

I turned and looked down the sidewalk. Taylor had kept running, but suddenly she stopped. She stood frozen in the middle of the sidewalk. I held my breath. I was exposed and raw, but holy fucking shit—that was what I’d been waiting for. All these damn years, that right there. Just that.

Taylor saw me. She saw through me. She saw into me. She saw me, and she claimed me.

“Logan?”

The girl touched my arm, but I moved away. I didn’t want her touch. I’d been revolted by it as soon as I woke up next to her, and I’d slipped out. I hadn’t known she was at the window until Taylor looked and saw her.

I wanted to apologize to Taylor. She caught me leaving another girl’s bed, but then she apologized. She went deep, deeper than anyone else in my life. I was so wrong. I saw her running and instantly wanted to claim her as mine again, but I fought against myself. These days I always fought against myself when it came to her. Every damn time in class I forced myself not to sink into the chair next to her. I forced myself to keep moving. I forced myself to sit with other girls, to hear their annoying come-ons.

That was all I’d been doing the past month, forcing myself to stay away from Taylor, and then she pulls this shit?

She gutted me.

I couldn’t move, but I couldn’t tear my gaze away from her. I wanted to go after her, ask her why if she could see me she couldn’t be with me.

But I didn’t. Like every damned day this month, I didn’t. I didn’t text. I didn’t call. I did nothing, and I was starting to hate myself for it. Because I needed to go to her. It was normal to be with her, because she was mine. My insides knew it.

Because she was still mine, just like I was hers.

Fucking hell. I was in love with her.

I was in love with Taylor Bruce.

Fucking…hell…

“Logan.” The girl lifted her hand again to touch me. I saw it coming and stepped aside, evading her. She let out a frustrated sound, but said, “Your phone is ringing.”

“What?” I looked at her. “What’d you say?”

She pointed to my pocket. “Your phone is ringing, and I’m pretty sure that’s your brother. It’s the same ringtone from when he called you last night.”

I closed my eyes, wanting to scream at the girl because she was the one in front of me, but I didn’t. That’d be an asshole thing to do, and my asshole limits were set at sleeping with girls, not taking anything else out on them. I heard the ring this time, and I pulled out my phone and answered. “Yeah?”

“You need to get back.”

“Why? What’s going on?”

“Because Dad just called,” Mason said. “He said he reached out. Rankin won’t be a problem. I don’t know how he did it or what he did, and we’re not supposed to ask questions, but he did it. Rankin is supposed to stay away.”

I waited. I knew Mason had something else to deliver.

And then, he did. “And he’s coming to town. He’s calling in his favor.”

LOVE YOU BACK, FIRECRACKER

TAYLOR

I couldn’t run anymore after that realization, but eventually I could move again. I ended up walking back to the house, but when I went inside, I just stood there. Nothing made sense. I had no idea what to do. The door shut behind me, but I barely heard it. My keys fell from my hands, clattering to the floor.

I loved Logan.

I couldn’t—I loved him. I hadn’t thought I could love again.

A dazed cloud settled on top of me, but my mind was spinning at the same time. I wanted to shout and throw my hands in the air, then I wanted to shed more tears. All at once. I was all over the place, so I sat down.

Right where I was. In the middle of the front entryway, I crossed my feet over my lap, and I leaned forward. I…I loved Eric. Or I had. It felt like all my life he’d been at my side. He was my best friend in elementary school, my crush in junior high, and my boyfriend for the next four and a half years. He was going to be my partner for life, and he’d taken my heart with him when he left me.

Or so I thought.

I couldn’t…I couldn’t believe it. And then a wave of yearning crushed me. I wanted someone to talk to. Jason…he was gone. The person I really wanted to talk to was my mom. And she was gone, too. I wrapped my arms around my knees and rocked back and forth. She would’ve been ecstatic for me. She would’ve hugged me, told me to go after whoever made me happy, and she would’ve waved in the window as I left to do just that.

She should’ve been here. “Mom,” I whispered.

“What did you say?”

I looked up to see my dad standing there with a cup of coffee in one hand and a book in the other. “You’re home.” I had to blink a few times before it processed in my head.