SWNOVELS Cross-Checked Hearts: Chapter 27
Sitting on the couch, I twirl a stray string from the blanket between my fingers. Logan was gone when I woke up this morning and I wasn’t surprised to find the apartment empty. He mentioned last night that he needed to patch things up with my brother, however that might look or end up.
I didn’t call him or text him after I woke up because I knew he was going to be at Cam’s. And if he was with my brother, me reaching out to him wouldn’t look good. If anything, it would only make our situation worse. I’m just afraid for him to come home… I’m afraid to hear what August had to say.
I absentmindedly flip through the channels when I hear the front door open. My body falls rigid before I sit up straighter, turning to face the dining room as my breath catches in my throat. I listen as the door shuts, and his footsteps are heavy as he walks through the kitchen.
Logan pauses, his face falling as he stops in the dining room. His ocean blue eyes find mine and there’s a storm brewing within the depths. His plump lips are situated in a frown, his eyebrows drawn together as he walks toward me.
He doesn’t say a word as he walks around the couch, dropping down onto the cushion beside me. His hands find my arms as he pulls me toward him, burying his face in my neck as he wraps himself around me. There’s something off about him, the way he’s acting, but I breathe him in, savoring the smell of his cologne and the warmth of his body.
“This has to stop, baby,” he murmurs, his lips brushing against the sensitive skin on my neck. “We can’t keep doing this anymore.”
My heart pounds erratically in my chest as I freeze against him. “What are you talking about?” My voice is quiet, my words broken as the panic seeps into the cracks. “We can’t keep doing what?”
“This,” he says softly as he presses his lips to the column of my throat and pulls away. “We can’t be together. We can’t do this together. I have to let you go, let you move on and find someone that can give you everything you deserve.”
My heart sinks and the floor falls from beneath me as dread fills the pit of my stomach. This can’t be happening. After everything we’ve been through together, this is where we really ended up. With both of our hearts broken, in shattered shards scattered across the floor.
“I don’t need to find someone because I already have,” I tell him, my voice cracking as the tears fall from my eyes without warning. A lump forms in my throat and I swallow roughly over it. “That person is you.”
His bright blue eyes search mine, his hands stroking the sides of my face, catching the tears with the pads of his thumbs as they fall. “I know, baby, but your brother doesn’t approve and that’s not fair to you. The last thing I want to do is come between the two of you, so I have to let you go.”
“No,” I shake my head, the overwhelming panic consuming me. It’s like we’re repeating the past and I’m living through him leaving me again. It’s different this time, though. There’s more feelings involved and we’re in so goddamn deep. It’s more than just a crush. I love him. “Let me talk to him and get him to understand. It doesn’t have to be this way, Logan. You don’t have to choose. Just let me talk to him first.”
Logan’s smile is sad. “I’m sorry, baby. It does have to be this way. He wouldn’t listen to me and he’s not going to want to hear it from you either.” He pauses, taking both sides of my face in his hands as his wet eyes probe mine. “We just need to take this little break and let August breathe. Maybe he’ll change his mind. And if he doesn’t, you still have a chance to find happiness instead of being stuck with your high school crush.”
“You’re more than that, Logan,” I breathe, my voice barely audible as my eyebrows draw together. “I meant what I said. I love you—I’ve loved you for a long time.”
“I love you too, Isla.” He smiles, his eyes close as two tears slip out and fall down the sides of his face. “That’s why I have to let you go.”
His lips find mine, his kiss slow and brutal. He kisses me like it’s the last time he ever will, and there’s a good chance it might be. If August never comes around to the thought of the two of us together, Logan will never come back to me.
He slowly pulls away from me, his soft lips touching my forehead before he rises to his feet. I watch him as he walks away from the couch, heading back toward the dining room. It’s an awkward position, given that we both live in the same apartment.
“Don’t fucking do this, Logan Knight,” I choke out, my voice hard and cold as I glare at him.
Logan glances at me over his shoulder as he pauses in the doorway that leads into the kitchen. “I’m sorry,” he voice is barely audible and his eyes are filled with pain as the distance between us feels like it grows by the second. “I’ll always love you, Isla Whitley.”
And with that, he disappears from the dining room. His footsteps are heavy as he walks through the kitchen and the tears don’t stop falling from my face. A sob tears through me as I hear the door shut behind him, and I’m left alone with my thoughts and my heart ripped to shreds and discarded on the floor.
I can’t believe he really did this to me—to us.
I shouldn’t be surprised, though…
I always knew he would be the one to hurt me.