Unbreak My Heart by Lorelei James

She’d ended up pregnant two more times, so I had a half-brother and half-sister. Their dad had lit out as soon as he discovered that my mom couldn’t take the kind of beatings she dished out to her kids.
    Sometimes I forgot what a shitty childhood I’d had.
    You haven’t forgotten; you’ve just buried it. Addiction, abuse, neglect has no part in your life now.
    How much stuff would this conversation with my dad dredge up? When he didn’t have a fucking clue about some of the crap I’d gone through because he hadn’t cared enough to be around?
    “Boone?”
    My gaze snapped up from my shoes. At some point I’d sat on the bench and Sierra stood right beside me. I’d gotten lost, which was why I rarely let myself revisit the past. “Hey. Sorry.”
    “Is everything all right?”
    During the year Sierra and I had been friends, I’d found myself telling her things no one had ever bothered to try and pry out of me. I hadn’t found that kind of acceptance again until I’d become friends with Raj. And I hadn’t looked for that kind of connection with another woman.
    Is that why you’re so adamant about rekindling your relationship with her? To prove to her that you aren’t the same bitter boy, but knowing she’d understand your past helped mold you into the guy you are now?
    A warm hand touched my cheek.
    I blinked and tipped my head back to look at her.
    “Boone. What’s going on?”
    “Had a weird phone call.”
    “Do you want to talk about it?”
    My gut tightened. That sweet concern sounded so much like my Sierra from years past.
    But if I said yes…would she be a crutch? If I said no…would she pull back? And how was I supposed to decide anything when I had her tender touch on my face? When the softness in her gaze was for me?
    “Don’t run when I say this.” I lifted my hand, trapping her hand against my face to keep it in place. “Looking at you…having you this close…makes it goddamn hard to breathe, let alone think straight.” Immediately after I admitted that, I slammed my eyes shut. I could not deal with her rejection right now.
    I swear to god I heard her murmur, “I know what you mean.”
    Then her sharp fingernails scratched my hairline. “I liked you better with long hair, West.”
    I smiled at her attempt to lighten the mood. “Yeah?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Well, it’s a no-go in the military. A buzz cut, the same as everyone else’s, makes it impossible to wear the label of brooding bad boy when the hipsters and the rednecks look exactly like you.”
    She laughed.
    I wanted more of that. I wanted more of this easy banter. I opened my eyes.
    She tugged her hand away, but she didn’t retreat. “You still want to do this today?”
    More than ever. “Wow me with your expertise, college girl.”
    “Smartass. I’m a college graduate . Come on.”
    Sierra drove a Mercedes.
    “Why are you grinning like that?” she demanded.
    “You drive the same kind of car you had in Wyoming.”
    “Because even the new models have the highest safety ratings on the market.” She smirked. “With way more drive time, I upgraded to a kick-ass stereo.”
    I climbed in and buckled up. “What’s first?”
    “Showing you the areas your friend can’t afford.” She paused. “Scottsdale and Arcadia.”
    “Where do you live?”
    “Scottsdale.”
    I bore white knuckles as Sierra wove in and out of traffic. The music on her kick-ass stereo didn’t provide enough distraction—I wouldn’t have pegged her as a Taylor Swift fan.
    “You okay over there, West?”
    “Trying not to think about whether my life insurance info is up to date.”
    “Traffic is the one thing I hate about Phoenix.”
    “Did you always know you’d come back here?”
    She weighed her response. “Dad moving us to Sundance felt like punishment, even when he did it so we could both get to know his family together. That first year was rough on so many levels. Junior and senior years of high school I became more involved with