“She probably thinks you’re psycho. It’s not normal touproot your entire life just to chase after some girl you screwed things up with years ago.”
He’s always assumed I was the reason for our breakup, but to this day, I’ve never been able to figure out where exactly it all went wrong. We were so close to summer break—to having months of alone time. It didn’t make sense to me then, and all these years later I have a hell of a lot more questions than answers.
“What did you even say to her when she asked why you moved back?” Adrian asks, breaking me out of my thoughts.
I clench my jaw, my grip tightening around my beer bottle. “She hasn’t asked,” I admit. “And if she does, I’ll tell her it’s for work until I think she’s ready to hear the truth.”
“Uh-huh,” Adrian drawls, oozing sarcasm. “Because Red Mountain is just overflowing with opportunities. Come on, man.”
Rubbing the spot between my brows does little to soothe the panic Adrian has induced. “You’re not helping.”
He howls with laughter, and I resist the urge to hang up the phone. “Elyse has never done anything she didn’t already set her sights on. Not as a kid, and likely not now. I don’t know what made you think showing up ten years later would warm her up to you.”
“How about you focus on your love life and I’ll focus on mine. Stay out of it,” I mumble.
“Look,” Adrian says, his laughter finally tapering off. “You’ve got two options: either you give her space and let her come to you—which, let’s be honest, might never happen—or you figure out a way to show her you’re smarter than you were at nineteen.”
I sigh, gliding my palm on the back of my neck. “Easier said than done. I thought I was making progress, but she’s so quick to lash out at me, I can’t get a read on her.”
I was completely caught off guard when sheshowed up at my place the other day, and I played it all wrong. I came on too strong, pushed her too far. It’s so easy to go there with her, easily slipping into her gravitational pull—natural, effortless. Now I’m not sure how to recover from it. I don’t know where to go from here.
Adrian snorts. “Not that you asked, but my advice would be to start small. You’re always doing too much, you’re too intense,” he says, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “Show up, be consistent, and don’t make it about you. Be laid back. And maybe if you’re patient, and don’t attack her like a dog in heat, she’ll eventually come to you.”
The irony of getting relationship advice from him is not lost on me. He used to be adamantly against marriage and anything close to a serious relationship.
I cut the call short, claiming something work related came up, when really I’m done talking about my recent string of failures involving Ellie. If I don’t figure out how to make things right, I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to move on.
I’m clinging onto one thread of hope, and one alone.
The tattoo.
She kept it.
CHAPTER 15
Dominic
RECKLESS DECISIONS
17 YEARS OLD
“You’re not allowed to see that boy anymore!” Jack yells at Ellie, as if I’m not standing right beside her.
That boy.
Ellie stiffens, her fingers curling into fists at her sides, her whole body radiating pure rage. Jack has always liked me—I know that much. But right now, he’s looking at me like I’ve just stolen his daughter’s innocence and ran it through the dirt.
And he doesn’t even know the half of it. He’d likely kill me if he knew his little girl is far from innocent.
Ellie tilts her chin up, defiant. “I’m not a kid! You don’t get to tell me who I can and can’t see, you can’t control me.”
Jack’s face reddens, his jaw tight. “You are seventeen years old! You’re a goddamn kid, and you live under my roof. You think this is about control? It’s about you making reckless decisions! Tattooing a boy’s name on your wrist is not what I would define as responsible behavior. Jesus, Elyse, what were youthinking?”
I knew they would discover the tattoo, but I didn’t anticipate it being so quickly. It took them two weeks. I was hoping we could hide it for a year. Or even better—forever.
As I was saying my goodbyes to Ellie at the front door, Jack caught sight of her wrist as she hugged me, and that’s when all hell broke loose.
Ellie crosses her arms, refusing to shrink under her Dad’s stare. “I was thinking that it’s my body and my choice. And that I love Dominic. And that maybe it’s none of your freaking business.”
