I know that.

She glares as tears run down her cheek. “Don’t you dare. I love you, Garrison.”

“I love you, too.” I’ll always love her. I stuff my chilled, burning hands into my pockets. “It’s why I have to go.”

We stand in the middle of her college campus. Phones pointed at us. And I feel like I’ve grabbed a shovel and buried us both under.

“You’re not breaking up with me,” Willow says in defiance. Like it can’t be done. “I won’t let you.”

I don’t deserve her. I don’t deserve her. God, I don’t. But I’m ruining her. My eyes sear, cold stinging the water that threatens to spill. “Willow—”

“You want to go,” she says. “I heard you. So we’re going to get in a cab and drive to the airport and you’re going to fly home. But I’m coming with you to the airport. You don’t have to talk. We can just sit. And then when you’re back in Philly and sober, you’ll call me. You’ll tell me what’s wrong.”

I don’t know if I will.

But I nod.

“I love you,” she says again. Wrapping her arms around herself because I won’t let her touch me. If she touches me, she’ll know I bruised…or broke my ribs. Or rather, my brother broke them.

Maybe she already knows. It’s probably on her list of possibilities. Still I can’t bring myself to mention what happened. It doesn’t excuse me punching her friend. It doesn’t excuse how I ruined tonight.

Yeah, I should let her go. Reject her offer. But I feel like the inked skeleton, fingers slipping from the one thing still alive in its hand.

And I hold on.

I’m holding on.

But I don’t know where we go from here.

Thank you so much for reading Whatever It Takes! We hope you enjoyed the beginning of Garrison & Willow’s romance. Their story continues and concludes in Book 2 of the Bad Reputation Duet, which still follows both past and present storylines. It’s all going down in Wherever You Are!

FURTHER READING

Ready for the next generation? Lily & Lo’s son Maximoff Hale is all grown up and has an epic love story in Damaged Like Us.

DAMAGED LIKE US

Don’t date your bodyguard.

It was the one rule he had to break.

M/M Romance

Want to learn more about how the Calloway Sisters and their families became famous? The entire Addicted & Calloway Sisters series are now available! Start with Lily & Loren Hale’s story in Addicted to You.

ADDICTED TO YOU

Two addicts (a female sex addict & an alcoholic) pretend to be in a relationship to hide their addictions from their families

New Adult Romance

Also by Krista & Becca

ADDICTED SERIES

Addicted to You

Ricochet

Addicted for Now

Thrive

Addicted After All