My eyes narrowed, and I stepped toward her.
“No, you weren’t,” Joey said. “I’m the one who called you to tell you about the accident. I picked you up that night from Gray’s party.”
“I walked back after the accident,” she mumbled. “I lied to you.”
“I told her to go,” Owen added. “She was so young. I didn’t want her caught up in it. The minute the car went over…I thought you guys were dead, Gray, and I was too drunk to do anything about it. I will never forgive myself. And I never would have told that stupid racing lie if I’d realized you were going to live.”
I didn’t even bother looking at Owen. My eyes locked onto Parker, and the way she’d huddled in on herself, rocking on the bench. I remember…seeing him flip us off with a grin, his finger pressed up against the window. Grace’s words roared in my ears.
“You drove drunk with my little girl in the car?” Dad asked.
“Sir, there’s no excuse for what happened that night,” Owen recited that fucking line, the one he’d always used.
“You drove drunk with my little girl in the car!” Dad roared.
“No, he didn’t. He wasn’t driving,” I said softly, but everyone stopped and looked my way. I kept my gaze on Parker. “You were, weren’t you, Parker? You drove. Otherwise Grace couldn’t have seen Owen against the passenger-side window as you passed us.”
“Gray—” she pled.
I shook my head. “I’m right, aren’t I? That’s why you’ve been on my ass about Grace, about me not moving on. Why you constantly harp on me about moving home? Why you showed up in Alabama and did everything in your power to make Sam run.”
“I was trying to fix what I broke,” she whispered. “You belong with Grace.”
“It had nothing to do with Grace! It was your own guilt! Maybe I ruined my relationship with Sam, but you sure as hell put the crack there and then exploited it. It wasn’t enough to run us off the road, you had to ruin the woman I love now?”
“I was trying to make it right! I didn’t go away to college, I stayed here while Owen was in jail. I took care of Grace when I could. When she woke up, I embraced the miracle, and thought you would, too. You are perfect together.”
“As friends. I’m in love with Samantha.”
“Y-you were driving?” Dad stuttered.
Parker nodded her head. “You wouldn’t let me get my license.”
“You were reckless,” Dad answered.
“Owen was drunk, and I knew he couldn’t drive, so I talked him into letting me drive.”
“I tried that,” I countered.
“Yeah, well, you don’t have boobs.”
I stepped closer to Owen who threw his arms up. “I’ve never touched your sister, I swear to God.”
“You went to jail for her?” Joey asked, coming up beside me. “You could have told the truth and not spent four years in prison.”
“Parker was like my little sister. I couldn’t turn her in. Not when she’d only been driving because I was drunk.”
“It was an accident, Gray. I was going too fast. Just an accident.”
Owen looked at me. “You have always been a brother to me, and you know I love Grace. For every second you’ve spent cursing the moment you didn’t wrestle me to the ground and take my keys that night, I’ve spent two wishing I had let you. I live with that every day.”
Too much. It was too much to absorb. To feel. To take in.
“You know what?” I threw my hands on my head and backed away. “I’m done. Everyone keeps telling me to get my shit together. But you guys take the cake. I’m done with every. Single. One of you.” I pointed to Owen, Parker, and Dad, kissed Joey’s cheek, and walked into the parking lot.
I grabbed my phone to check in for my flight, and I had three missed texts.
My Samantha: I think about you every time I breathe.
My Samantha: Doesn’t change anything, though, but I wish it did.
My Samantha: I don’t mind psycho stalker-texts as long as they’re from you.
My Samantha: Colorado is really pretty this time of year.
Grayson: So is North Carolina.
My Samantha: That, I don’t doubt, especially if you’re there.
Less than a month to graduation. I had way too much to do to waste another moment on hesitation.
Or North Carolina.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Grayson
The rip of packing tape echoed in my steadily emptying room. Another box down, and only a few more to go.
“You ready?” Jagger asked, leaning on my doorframe. “Are you seriously packing? In dress blues?”
I put down the tape gun. “Yeah, well, I figured I had a minute. You guys ready?”
“Yeah, the girls are finally ready to go. Bummer about Grace.”
I adjusted my suspenders over the white dress shirt before pulling on my dress blue jacket. “She said she’ll make it in for graduation tomorrow. I honestly thought about skipping this thing.”
“You can’t skip the graduation ball. You’re the fucking class leader.”
“So I’ve been told.” Damn, I didn’t want to sit there while they told Jagger he was the distinguished honor graduate, first in the class. Not that he didn’t deserve it, I just…wanted it. Wanted to wave it in front of my dad and tell him to fuck right off.