Wasted Time (The Steel City #1)

40. Penny

CHAPTER FORTY

penny

Wyatt pulls into my parents’ driveway and puts the truck in park.

I pick at the seam of my leggings, glaring out the window. To say that I’m embarrassed would be an understatement. I am mortified. Not only because I said far too much to Declan, laid myself way too bare—but because the whole block probably heard me rip my own heart out and give it to him.

Wyatt included.

He has been patient. He didn’t say a word the entire drive. After a few moments of sitting in the driveway in silence, he leaned back in his seat with his wrist draped over the steering wheel and stared at the garage door until I finally risked looking up from my lap.

He turns to look at me.

I look away. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

He lets out a long breath and turns off the lights of the truck, winding in his seat to face me.

“Well, you don’t seem to want to go inside, either. What do you want to do?”

I rip my eyes from the window, meeting his neutral stare. “Turn back time?”

He pretends to consider this, his lips pulling downward. He nods slowly. “To before your WWE smackdown with Dec on the front lawn, or to before you slept with him?”

I freeze. It’s weird hearing that fact from someone else’s mouth.

He shoots me a knowing look. “You guys are both stupid. That was a terrible idea. Horrible, even. The worst thing either of you could have done, probably.”

Jesus Christ.

I shrink into my seat. Can humiliation get worse when it was already at level ten? Can it reach a level one hundred? If it can, I’m there.

“I get it, Wy.”

“Do you?” he asks.

“I shouldn’t have slept with my friend. I fucked with the friend-group dynamic. Avery and Seth were the exception, blah, blah.”

“No,” he says. “I don’t care if you fucked Dec. Lord knows it probably should have happened years ago. It’s your choice of when and your choice of why that was dumb on both of your parts.”

I sigh, running a hand over my face.

“You just broke up with Gavin, Pen. Hours before—not days, not weeks. There was no way that wouldn’t end in disaster. You’re an overthinker. It took you three months to even decide if you liked Gavin. You really thought you weren’t going to wake up and set the world on fire?”

“It was just supposed to be sex,” I murmur.

“It’s never just sex when there’s a history. That’s a lie you tell yourself in the moment to justify a piss poor decision that you know you’re going to regret the minute you get the edge off.”

I glower at him, going back to pick at my leggings. I know all of this. It was dumb. He’s right. I shouldn’t have slept with Dec, but god, I wanted it.

“I don’t know what he did, but I guarantee he didn’t mean it. Once this settles, if you talk to him, I trust he has a reason, even if it’s a bad one.”

“ I did something,” I tell him glumly.

He raises both brows.

“I ran. I went to Avery’s. I ghosted him until he left town and then acted as if it hadn’t happened.”

Shock washes over Wyatt’s face. “Cold.”

“I called him a few weeks later when we were in London. I was panicking and I just needed to hear his voice, but when he answered I couldn’t find the courage to talk. I hung up.”

Wyatt is staring at me like I’m revealing my deepest, darkest secrets and handing them to him to keep. He looks stunned beyond words. I was the problem, not Declan. Not the playboy. Not the big-shot hockey player with a rolodex of women.

He didn’t let me down. I let him down.

Might as well give Wyatt the whole story.

“I sent him a one-word response. He called back repeatedly. He texted me. I ignored every single one.”

Wyatt presses his lips together tightly and relaxes in his seat. “Wow.”

“I didn’t mean for the fight to get that out of hand. I got defensive. I think I panicked.”

“Well,” Wyatt says, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. “Your life got turned on its head. You were going through it, and that just added one hundred pounds of more shit on you. You were already vulnerable before you guys jumped into bed together. Are you really surprised that you keep freaking out?”

I swallow. “I should have just told him what I was feeling. It could have prevented this.”

“Yeah, probably. But you’re human and you were hurt. I don’t think reacting the way you did was as outrageous as you think it is.”

I glance at him. His dark eyes are warm. Kind. Even though he’s one of our closest friends, he understands both of our sides and is not afraid to tell me that. He is a good guy with a good heart, and he will not leave this driveway until he knows that I’m okay.

“You think we could be friends again one day?”

Wyatt smiles gently, reaching across the cab of the truck to place his hand on mine. “I think you’re still friends now. You guys just have a lot to talk about that you’ve put off for too long.”

“I just can’t , Wy.”

“Maybe not right now,” Wyatt says, squeezing my fingers. “But one day, you’ll be able to. That’ll be the day things change. You are both terrible communicators, but once you work on that, you’ll be surprised how much easier it is to understand how someone else feels.”

“I…” I start, staring at our hands. I shake my head, cutting off my thought and swallowing it.

“You have feelings for him.”

My gaze snaps up to Wyatt’s. He smiles gently, his thumb brushing over my knuckles.

“That’s okay.”

“I don’t know what it is,” I admit quietly, wiping a tear away. “I’ve missed him.”

“I see the way he’s been looking at you,” Wyatt laughs under his breath. He shakes his head, like he can’t believe he missed this. “And the way he’s been looking at me, like he wants to rip my head off for being near you. I think he’s missed you just as much.”

Really?

I smother out the hope in my heart.

“It would never work.”

“Says who?” Wyatt asks, cocking a brow. “If there’s one thing I know about Declan, it’s that he always gets what he wants in the end. And you? You are the most difficult person to get to know and the easiest person to love once you do.”

Well, that’ll do it.

I shake my head, burying my face in my hands.

Wyatt undoes his seatbelt and slides across the cab, pulling me to his chest. I bury myself there, where I know I’m safe.

“What I’m saying is, you’re worth the long game, and I think Declan’s been playing that game for a lot longer than even he realizes.”

He presses a kiss to my hair.

Sniffling, I reach up and wind my arms around his neck, pulling him close.

Wyatt squeezes me tightly. He holds me together. It’s something he’s always been able to do. Our friendship is the kind that I would die for.

“I love you.”

“Oh, Sweeten,” he gushes, rocking me back and forth. I can hear the smile on his lips. “It’s impossible not to.”

“No parole.”

He chuckles, kissing my hair again. “No parole.”