But he wouldn’t answer me. He just shook his head, all his effort going toward strangling the emotion desperately trying to break free.

And in an instant, in a snap of a band I didn’t realized was stretched so thin, I went from sad and hurt to all-encompassing anger.

“You’re a coward, Clay Johnson,” I whispered.

His eyes snapped to mine, pain laden in them, but I didn’t care.

He was hurting me, too.

“You’re a coward, and a fool, and this isn’t what you want, and I know it.” I shook my head. “Let me in. Tell me what happened. Tell me and we can fix it together.”

Clay just stared at me, his nostrils flaring as his eyes wandered over the length of my face like he was savoring every inch of it and storing it in his memory.

Like he’d never see me again.

And that broke me.

“Fine!” I screamed, and in a move that surprised both of us, I punched him straight in the chest with both of my fists. “Go! Leave!”

Clay took every hit, his eyes fluttering shut, not so much of a flinch each time my little hands rained down on him.

“Go be with Maliyah. Go pretend like none of this mattered, like I don’t matter.”

He shook his head at that, reaching for me, but I swatted him away.

“No. No, don’t try to take it back now.”

“Kitten,” he whispered in a pained breath.

“GET OUT!” I screamed, hitting him again and again as I shoved him toward the door. “I hate you! I never want to see you again! I hate you!”

The words came out more desperate and garbled with every breath as sobs ripped free from my chest, echoing off every wall of my apartment.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered against another flood of tears, trying to hold onto me as I pushed and pushed.

“You…” I stopped, melting into his arms as he wrapped me up tight. I shook and cried and he did the same. “You broke my fucking heart.”

Silence fell over us, one long, still moment.

“I broke mine, too,” he whispered.

And then he released me.

I gasped at the loss, but didn’t have time to do more than reach for his back as he pulled my front door open and flew out of it without looking back at me.

A mangled cry fell from my lips when he was gone, and I sank down to the floor, bones collapsing in a heap before I hugged my knees to my chest like that was the only way to keep myself together.

Just like that, my cotton candy cloud moment was over.

And no matter how I braced for it, I knew I’d never survive the crash to the ground.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Clay