“You knew what I did, and that it was for you. And did you care? No, you were still willing to throw me away like garbage, to send me to jail, to get your revenge on Luisa.”

I open my mouth to explain, but he doesn’t want that.

“Hailey. Stop. It doesn’t matter.” His voice is hard. “What I’m saying is, you can’t be the last.”

I stare at the flames. With those five words, my life might as well be over. Deep inside, I think I always thought I’d eventually end up with one of them. My life, so entwined with the Weeks boys… Does he understand what he’s saying? How can I go on living without my heart?

But I suppose this is what I deserve, so I say nothing.

“I’m not going to end up facedown in a pool with a bullet in my back, Hailey,” he says. “I’m luckier than him. I can move on from here, be one of the people I imagined. You have to let me. Say it’s okay, and let me.”

I can’t speak. He wants permission, two words: It’s okay. But those are not so easy to give. For so long, my life has been all about the Weeks boys. And he’s right. Luisa’s right. I’ve been a poison to them. And even if Declan can’t go on from here because of me, at least there’s something I can do for Kane.

I fall to my knees beside him, lost in tears. “I’m so sorry,” I repeat, over and over again. “I’m so sorry.”

He takes me in his arms and whispers in my ear, nothing I can make sense of. I’m not sure anything will ever make sense to me again. After all, I never knew it was possible to love someone to death, to hold him to your heart so tightly that he’s crushed in your embrace.

But I have. And as long as I live, I will never do that again.

I nod. It’s okay, I mouth. It’s okay. I repeat it over and over, until it’s more for myself than it is for him.

Kane closes his eyes, then wipes at one. Is he crying? By the time I can focus on him, they’re dry, and he’s back to the unemotional, unsentimental Kane I know and love.

“Kane,” I say as I watch embers climb into the summer sky. “I wish we could go back.”

He climbs to his feet and digs his hands into the pockets of his shorts. “I know.”