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“This is no-filter Charm. She says whatever the fuck she wants now.”
“I like her.”
“She likes you too. She thinks your ex can choke.”
A laugh breaks through the weight in his expression. “Violent.”
“She reserves compassion for people who aren’t Lyric.”
“I was still wrong after Thanksgiving.”
“Water under the bridge. I reserve my remaining fucks for shit that matters. You being angry because you loved Ryan matters. Holding it against you now doesn’t.”
“We’re good?”
“We processed it. Move on.”
Briggs raises his beer. “You’re so much cooler now.”
“I was always cool.”
“No.”
“I was.”
“You were funny. Most people didn’t know because you requested emotional clearance before every joke.”
“I hate how observant you are.”
“You’re going to hate being my best friend.”
“You remain disturbingly confident about that.”
He smiles, but the emotion in his eyes doesn’t disappear.
“Thank you for taking care of him,” I say.
The humor leaves his face.
“For choosing him when he needed to be chosen,” I continue. “You followed him to Flint so he could break somewhere safe. Then you came to Milwaukee when you could’ve built your life anywhere. You gave him somewhere to belong after I made loving him feel like something he had to hide.”
My voice roughens despite my attempt to keep it steady.
“I think you might have saved his life, Briggs.”
He doesn’t cry. The emotion appears in the hard swallow moving through his throat, the sudden tension in his jaw, and the way he looks down before meeting my eyes again.
“He saved me,” Briggs says.
The words are quiet and stripped of every joke he might have used to make them easier.
I don’t ask him to explain. I place my beer on the dresser and wrap my arms around him. Briggs holds me immediately, one massive arm closing around my shoulders while his other hand presses against the back of my head.
For several seconds, we stand in Ryan’s hallway holding the truth between us.
When he releases me, he wipes one hand over his face and points toward the living room. “We need to leave before this becomes emotionally healthy.”
“Where are we going?”
