Chapter 68

Meanwhile, at LSU, Keegan sat on the edge of his dorm bed staring at his phone.

Brees was still blocked from nothing on his end.

She had blocked him.

He had tried once.

He’d stared at the message he’d typed for nearly twenty minutes before finally deleting it.

I miss you.

Too simple.

I’m sorry.

Not enough.

I didn’t mean it.

A lie.

Because he had meant what he’d said in that moment.

He had been scared.

Scared of their families.

Scared of what happened next.

Scared of how serious everything had become.

But he’d never been scared of Brees.

That was the part he couldn’t explain.

He could face thousands of people in a stadium.

He could handle the pressure of LSU.

He could handle everything his future demanded from him.

But the thought of admitting how much he loved his best friend’s little sister terrified him.

And now he’d lost her.

He wanted to drive home and scoop her up in his arms and let her know that his love for her had not changed and that they needed to be together.

But he didn’t.

He couldn’t.

Could he?

He pondered this for a moment. He daydreamed about her and what it would feel like to himd her again.

His daydream was quickly interrupted.

His phone buzzed.

A teammate.

“Practice in twenty.”

Keegan tossed the phone beside him.

“Coming.”

But before he stood, he opened his camera roll.

The first picture was of Brees.

She was laughing.

He remembered exactly when he’d taken it.

She’d been mad at him for taking it.

He smiled despite himself.

Then the smile disappeared.

Because he knew something now.

She wasn’t coming back just because he missed her. She had blocked any contact with her. He had asked Baylen several times about her but Baylen wanted nothing to do with either of them

And for the first time, Keegan understood what it meant to actually lose her.

At Huffington, Brees stood in front of her mirror the next morning.

She fixed her hair.

Grabbed her backpack.

Looked at herself one last time.

She still missed him.

She probably would tomorrow.

Maybe next week.

Maybe months from now.

But she wasn’t going to let missing Keegan stop her life.

Senior year was happening whether her heart was ready for it or not.

So she picked up her bag.

Walked out of her room.

And kept going.

Because if Keegan had chosen a life without her in it…

Then Brees was going to learn how to build one without him.

Even if it took every day of her senior year to do it.

And if Jagger was going to remain in that life, Brees would have to learn how to stand beside her without pretending the past had never happened.

She couldn’t ask Jagger to forget Texas.

She couldn’t ask her to forget being chosen second.

All Brees could do was stop taking her presence for granted.

Even if it meant accepting that Jagger might never love her the way she once had again.