I paused, gathered my composure, and then turned around to face them without letting go of Jackson’s hand.

“I need a break, because when I look at that invitation, the only place I want to tell you to go to is hell, Lee. I’ll be damned if I’m going to watch you accept his posthumous award while everyone cheers, because we both know his mama isn’t going to sober up enough to do it.”

Her eyes flared, and then her face fell.

“Right, that’s what I thought.” My stomach turned at the prospect of watching it all go down. “Will made you his primary next of kin, and that gives you access to all the information, and I get it, you just wanted to honor him while trying to navigate my delicate feelings that you knew nothing about. But you do now. So I’m leaving in the hopes that by the morning, this feeling will pass and I can calm myself down enough that I won’t tell you to take that award ceremony and shove it up your perfect ass, because this is the last time I will ever let any of you think that your grief or your love for Will is deeper or stronger than mine. Losing that man drove me to actual insanity, and as far as I can see, you’re all doing just fine.”

They stared at me with varying degrees of shock, with the exception of Sam, who smirked.

“Ember, the coffeemaker is plugged into the dining room since I don’t have any counters. Sam can show you where I put the extra towels, and she knows how to work the alarm and the sliding windows. And Sam, if you wouldn’t mind making my apologies to our Outer Banks friends? Y’all have a good night. I sure do appreciate you coming all the way down here to see me.” My eyes narrowed. “And if any of you so much as touch his truck, so help me God, there will not be enough time and space in the world to calm me down. Night!” I flashed a fake smile they all would have accepted as real before this blowup and walked over the dune with Jackson…who had just witnessed my entire tirade over another man.

“Are you okay?” he asked, handing me the invitation.

“Are you?” I challenged softly. “I never meant for you to hear all that. I can’t imagine how you must feel right now.”

His jaw ticked for a second, but he lifted my hand and kissed the back of it. “I feel proud of you.”

“That’s not what I meant.” I shook my head. “I don’t want you to think you’re in some kind of competition with Will.”