“You’re probably already freaking her out.”
He had a point there.
“Look, you’ve never had a relationship before.”
“I was with that one girl that we met when we first moved out here, for, like, six months. What was her name, again? Natalie? Natasha?” I tried to remember, but all I could see was a blur of a face with blonde hair.
Oliver dipped his chin and shook his head. “Like I said, you’ve never had a real relationship before. You’ve always had one foot out the door.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but I knew it was the truth. I never allowed myself to be fully invested, because if I was never fully invested, I’d never give someone the opportunity to hurt me. With Lila it was different. Even after such a short time together, she still held all the power. It’d kill me if she didn't want this anymore—or didn’t want to try. Which is probably why I’d acted like such an uptight mess the entire way home.
Oliver perched in the chair next to the couch.
“There’s a reason I’ve been pushing you and Lila together. I knew she’d be good for you, and I thought you’d be good for her, too.”
“We’re nothing alike,” I said, feeling defeated—like I’d already ruined everything beyond repair just by being tongue-tied.
“The two ofusare nothing alike,” Oliver continued, gesturing from his chest to me. “But you’re still my best friend. And I want to see you happy, man. I want you to find someone who brings out the joy in you. I’ve seen it in small doses over the past twenty years, and I want to see it more. You don’t need to be a hard ass all the time. You’re allowed to enjoy your life.”
“I know,” I conceded. But I only knew that because Lila had made me realize it. She’d had more of an effect on me in thepast few days than anyone else had on me my entire life. She was special. And I couldn’t just let that slip through my fingers without giving it my all. Maybe I’d come off frazzled, and maybe I’d say the wrong thing, but I had to try.
“I’m not good enough for her,” I said, but I was already up off the couch and searching the crowded coat hook for my jacket.
“You should probably let her be the judge of that,” Oliver said before I closed the front door behind me.
TWENTY-EIGHT
Lila
“The wind had pickedup so much, and they were getting whipped around.” Charlie shook her head. “I thought I was about to lose Nathan before I even had a chance to marry him.”
I chuckled and pulled my fleecy blanket up around my chin. “I can’t believe I missed all of this.”
Charlie tilted her head back and groaned. “Me either. I seriously missed you so much.”
I had texted Charlie as soon as I’d gotten home, desperate to talk about Harrison's weird energy. Twenty minutes later, she turned up at my house in an oversized sweatshirt with a bag of snacks. We’d been resting, watching cheesy movies, and chatting ever since. God, I loved her.
“I’m glad Greece was amazing, but Fiji would have been a hundred times better if you were there,” she said, causing me to light up a little. Sitting there with her, gorging on potato chips and cookies, made me realize without a doubt that Charlie was the sister I never had. No matter how our lives changed, she would always be an important piece of mine.
“I messed up,” she said.
“How?”
“I checked my work email.”
I laughed. “That was a mistake. I almost did, but I’m forcing myself to wait until tomorrow.”
Even with my obsessive need to know everything, no one had called our personal phones, which meant there had been no emergencies while we were gone. I was sure the whole office had continued operating just fine.
“I shouldn’t have. Everything is fine, of course. I just can’t help myself sometimes. I even responded to a few.”
I opened my mouth in mock horror. “Oh, Charlie. You didn’t.”
She laughed and snatched the popcorn out of my hands.
“I can’t believe I took this time off and I’m also going to be off for three weeks for our wedding and honeymoon.Three weeks. I haven’t been away that long since we started ConnectHer.”
“And you did such a great job building it that the place will run smoothly in your absence,” I pointed out. “I’ll make sure of it.”
