I Slept With My Ex's Best Friend novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: Five Minutes

I looked at the house.

Through the kitchen window I could see Gretchen holding a pie server over her head, and Jace's mom laughing.

Jace was at the window too.

He was watching me.

He didn't come out.

He lifted one hand, flat, and left it on the glass.

Your call.

I turned back to the fence.

"Five minutes," I said.

Tanner nodded tightly.

He came closer, but not too close, and put his hands in his peacoat pockets.

For a second he looked like the boy in the photo album.

"I'm not going to make a speech," he said.

"Good."

"I lost everything. You know that, right? The race. The house. My dad won't look at me. My mom keeps crying in the laundry room so nobody can hear." He laughed, short. "Kenzie. You. Jace. All in one month."

"You lost them one at a time," I said. "It just took a month for everybody to notice."

He winced.

"Yeah. Okay."

He looked down at the frozen grass.

"We were good, Linnea. Before. Sophomore year. You remember the bonfire? The truck song? You cried."

"I remember."

"I can be that guy again. I swear to God. I'll go to therapy. I'll quit the poli sci stuff. I'll get a real job. I'll move back to Green Bay if you want."

"Why would I want you to move to Green Bay?"

"I don't know." His voice cracked. "I don't know what you want. I never knew. That was the problem."

It was the second true thing.

I let it sit there between us in the cold.

"No," I said.

"Linnie..."

"No, Tanner. Not now. Not after you've lost everything, not after you've got nothing left to lose. Not ever."

He closed his eyes.

"I'm not saying it to hurt you," I said. "I'm saying it so you stop asking."

"Okay," he said quietly.

"But you can do something."

He opened his eyes.

"You told Jace's mom you were sorry because your dad had his hand on your neck," I said. "You've never once said it to anybody where it didn't buy you something."

"So what do you want?"

"Kenzie's in that kitchen," I said. "Go knock on the door. Tell her the truth. To her face. And Monday, go to the dance studio and tell her captain the same thing."

He stared at me.

"In front of the team?"

"In front of whoever's there."

He looked at the yellow house.

Then he walked up the driveway and knocked on the Thorsens' front door.

It took a long time for anyone to answer.

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