Savior Complex: A Small Town Love Triangle Romance

So I’ll stay with Jordy—she’s a good woman, and she’ll be a good wife—and the only lives ruined will be mine and Nina’s.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Nina

It’s nearly nine in the morning when we get to Sunset Bay. I barely got any sleep overnight, even though I tried. Every time I closed my eyes, I was overwhelmed by memories of the weekend, broken up by Levi’s words, and my heart aching about what needed to happen. Worst of all, I have no idea how Brayden feels.

That’s my fault, I know. He texted me almost immediately after Levi was done raking me through the coals, and I blocked his calls to keep anymore texts from coming through. It was juvenile, I know. But I couldn’t think of anything else that would keep me from begging him to choose me, and everyone else be damned.

I’m pissed. Levi didn’t come out and say it, but it sure seemed like he thinks I’m the problem. But to be fair, I am the intruder. I’ve only known Brayden for a few months. Jordy has been with him for years, and it doesn’t matter how I feel about Brayden, or how I think he feels about me. He’s engaged to her, and that’s the final answer.

“Can I help you with your bags?” Levi asks as the bus stops at the transit station. I know he’s just being nice. He probably feels terrible he had to say anything at all. I shake my head no, then scoot around him and down the steps before anyone else. I stand at the far end of the bus, waiting for the driver to start unloading the bags, hoping mine is one of the first so I can just leave. While I wait, I open my phone and order an Uber, sighing when it says it’s fifteen minutes away.

“You all made great time.”

I turn around and there’s Jordy, grinning at me. And like dark magic, I feel the weight of what I did this weekend. How wrong it was.

She wraps her arms around me in a hug, and it takes everything in me to hug her back. When she pulls away, she frowns.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I say quickly. I flash her a smile of apology. “I’m just tired. I didn’t get a lot of sleep.”

“I can never sleep when I’m traveling,” she agrees, reaching forward to grab my bag before I do.

“Oh, I got that,” I say, trying to reach it.

“Nonsense. You’ve had a long drive.”

“It’s just that I have an Uber coming—”

“An Uber? Why? You knew I was coming to get you.”

I’m scrambling for excuses, anything that will get her to release my bag and let me escape.

“I just figured it’s been a long weekend, and you and Brayden probably want to catch up at his place.”

She laughs, shaking her head.

“Trying to get rid of me already,” she teases.

Yes, I am. “Of course not, I just know how much he’s missed you.” Fuck, why did I say that?

She smiles, as if this is absolute news to her. “I missed him too. There he is!”

She releases my bag when he reaches us, throwing her arms around his neck and ambushing him with a kiss. His eyes catch mine, lingering for a moment too long. Long enough. Then he closes them and wraps his arms around her waist while he returns her kiss.

I snatch up my bag before she can take it back. I’m about to walk away, but she whirls around.

“Cancel that Uber,” she commands, and I deflate. There’s no getting around this. I pull my phone out and hit the cancel button. “I have the biggest surprise for you,” she continues. “I want to be with you when you see it.”

I want to look at Brayden. It’s crazy how natural it feels to seek him out anytime I feel anything. But I refrain, instead following the happy couple back to the car. Brayden offers me the front seat, but I slide into the back without saying a word, using my luggage to take the seat next to me. As if he’d sit next to me in his fiancé’s car.

Admittedly, this whole silent treatment is weird after the weekend we had. In so many ways, I feel like he belongs to me and I belong to him. But the fact that he never even tried to make a way for us to be together, that he’s continuing to go along with this sham of a relationship after the intense connection we shared this weekend…it says novels about where I stand with him. I don’t belong to him, and he is definitely not mine. I realize I fell for Brayden’s charm like I was the fish and he was the lure. This whole infatuation is completely one-sided.

“Did Brayden tell you?” Jordy asks once we’re on the road. Her eyes find mine in the rear-view mirror, and I shake my head.

“Tell me what?”