“I won’t stop trying.” I squared my shoulders. “I can’t.”
“Good.” Wes nodded. “That’s what I wanted to hear. Because a girl like Lisa doesn’t deserve a guy who’s willing to give up just because he screwed up so bad it might take a lifetime of apologies to get it right.”
“Are you guys trying to make me feel better? Because you really suck at it.”
Gabe and Wes shared a knowing smile with one another, though by their body language I couldn’t tell if they were going to attack me or were just exhausted with the days events.
“What?” I glared at both of them.
“Ah, it always comes full circle.” Gabe shook his head. “Wes has issues, then I have issues, and then look, Dr. Blake’s sitting on the floor looking like a kicked puppy.”
“I will kick you,” I said, then swore and pounded the floor.
“Keep fighting for her.” Wes held out his hand to me. “It’s in the fight that you prove your worth.”
“And if I lose?”
“If you’re really worthy, you won’t lose, and you won’t quit, even when it looks like you’re about to.”
I peered around Wes to look at Gabe. “He do this often?”
Gabe shrugged. “What?”
“Make you feel stupid and insensitive all at once but wrap it up in a really nice quote so you feel warm and fuzzy while he’s saying it?”
“No,” said Gabe with a snort. Then he shook his head. “I get no warm fuzzies when he Hallmarks me… just supreme irritation, because most of the time he’s right.”
“Bastard,” I mumbled.
Wes grinned. His hand was still held out to me. I took it and pushed to my feet as he slapped me on the back. “Just give her time.”
“Right now, we should probably talk about her security, since I highly doubt she’s going to want to come back here.”
“I’ll make her.” A muscle worked in Gabe’s jaw. “I’ll freaking tie her to my car and make her, damn it!”
Wes sighed. “Gabe’s more of a tough-love sort of guy.”
“Yup.” Gabe nodded. “We’re like good cop, bad cop.”
“Which makes me?” I asked.
“The villain.” Gabe grinned.
I, however, did not.
“He’s kidding.” Wes shot Gabe a glare and led me out of the room. “But really, every good story needs a villain. May as well be both the hero and the bad guy. That way you’re kick-ass.”
“Some heroes be weak,” Gabe said from behind us. “All the princes in the fairytales? They don’t even have pecs.”
“It disturbs me that you look at their naked chests.” I sighed. “On so many levels.”
Gabe just barked out a laugh, while I numbly walked through my own house. It felt empty and cold without her, and I knew I didn’t want to keep living that type of existence. I wanted her to fill it, and I wanted to share it with her. So I would fight. I’d fight until she got so sick of me she had to get a freaking restraining order.
Okay, so maybe I wouldn’t fight in that way.
But I’d be there for her… for as long as it took her to trust me again. I’d be there.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE