Chapter Twenty-Two
The Line Between Us
RIXON’S POV
After that day at the hospital, I had to see Cole. Explain things.
I didn’t text him. I just showed up.
The garage was open like always, his beat-up basketball resting in the corner beside an abandoned bike and a stack of half-finished projects we swore we’d “get around to” someday. That was always Cole’s thing—big dreams, bigger heart, zero follow-through. Unless it mattered.
And I mattered. Once.
I knocked against the frame of the open door.
Cole looked up from where he was sitting cross-legged on the floor, fixing something that looked like a speaker. Or maybe destroying it. Hard to tell with him.
His expression didn’t shift. No smile. No scowl. Just tired eyes that said: You’ve got five minutes. Make them count.
“Hey,” I sai
