Savior Complex: A Small Town Love Triangle Romance

“And that’s such a bad thing?”

“It is when she’s been dead for over five years!” Jordy yells. “She wouldn’t want this for you, and you know it. You’ve had years to make this place your own, but it’s like Nanna Dot will walk into the room at any moment. There’s nothing that’s you here.”

“You don’t even know me,” I point out. “So how can you say that?”

“I know you aren’t an eighty-year-old woman,” she scoffs. “And that this house has gotten out of control because you can’t let go of a goddamn thing.” She takes a deep breath, then offers a pleading look. “You’re drowning, Nina. This house is consuming you. Nanna Dot is gone, and it’s time you moved on. I just wanted to help you let go of some of the emotional baggage.”

“You had no right to get rid of anything! You have no idea how much I loved her because you obviously didn’t feel the same.”

“How dare you. I loved her plenty,” Jordy says. “We all loved her. You don’t own the exclusive rights to a relationship with her, regardless of who she kept in her will and who she left out. Maybe you’re the only one who got anything because she knew you’d never amount to anything in your life.”

The words hit a space in me that has always been there, a fear I’ve been ignoring for years. Now fed, the fear grows into a dark and wild beast inside me, transforming into something that feels an awful lot like truth.

“Get out of my house,” I whisper, my eyes boring a hole into hers. I look at Brayden one last time, carving the shape of his face into my memory, along with the way he once held me and how I felt in his arms. Then I burn it all to hell. “Both of you. I don’t want to see either of you ever again.”

“Nina, I—”

“Get out!” I scream.

She looks like she’ll argue again, but then her shoulders fall. “Can I at least get my things?” she asks.

I want to tell her no. Tell her to use her earnings from my things to buy new stuff, since she’s so good at it. Maybe I’ll set her room on fire, set the whole house on fire, because this place doesn’t feel like mine anymore. But something tugs inside me when I see the remorse on her face. I fucking hate her. I won’t feel sorry for her. But I can at least let her get her shit before she leaves. So I nod, stepping aside as she runs toward her room.

“Are you okay?” Brayden asks quietly. I glare at him.

“No, I’m not okay,” I growl, then regret it immediately. I don’t want him to know how badly he’s affected me, or how hurt I am that he’s now standing by her instead of me. “I’ll be fine. I just need both of you out of here before I really lose my shit.”

“I’m so sorry,” he murmurs. “I didn’t know she was going to…” He shakes his head. “I just didn’t know, okay?”

“It doesn’t matter,” I say quickly.

“And about this weekend—”

“We both knew what this weekend was,” I interrupt. I can’t stand the way he’s looking at me now, so I avert my eyes to the drab gray wall behind him. “It’s done. There’s no need to talk about it anymore.”

He starts to say something, but the footsteps behind me shut him up.

“Come on, let’s go,” Jordy says. She doesn’t acknowledge me as she slides past both of us and heads to the door.

“Take the weekend off,” Brayden says once she’s gone. “We can talk at the ranch after this week.”

“I’m not coming back,” I say quietly. I look at my feet. This one hurts, but I know there’s no other choice. How the hell am I supposed to act like nothing happened? Every guy on the team knows what we did. But more than that, we know what we did. And if I’m around Brayden again, I’m going to forget why we’re a bad idea.

“Please don’t do this.”

I look up at him, and I hate that I can’t stop the tears that fill my eyes. I search his, looking for something to hold on to. Something that will tell me that this weekend wasn’t a lie.

I find nothing but sadness and regret. It’s not enough.

“I’m not coming back,” I repeat. “I quit, and I’m not coming to your wedding, so don’t bother sending me an invitation. Lose my number, your future wife needs your attention.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Brayden

“Can you believe her?” Jordy says. It’s the third time she’s said it in the twenty minutes it takes me to drive her car from Nina’s house to the ranch. And frankly, I can. Jordy had no right to touch any of Nina’s things, and it’s insanity that she doesn’t understand what an intrusion this is.

It’s right up there with picking a wedding date and venue without any input from the person you’re supposedly marrying.