Abel
Bitter Hearts.
I stare down at the text Caleb sent.Dinner at the Blue Crab at five before we head out. You can squeeze in with us if you want.
I text back.I’ll drive. See you in a few.
I tap the phone in my hand a second. Last night at the falls things got pretty heated with Zoey. As much as I want to believe it was just two people messing around, it wasn’t. First off, I’m not the messing around type. While my frat brothers were dipping their wick into any coed that would have them, I was already with Elizabeth, all but engaged at that point. The engagement came later, but it turned out that it didn’t mean much after all. I swear that entire nightmare was enough to break me, make me give up on the fairytale that is love and all of its heart-shaped trappings, but Caleb and Kennedy—what they share can’t be denied. My parents didn’t make it. Elizabeth and I sure as hell didn’t make it. But it’s looking like Caleb is the exception to the rule. Whether Caleb realizes it or not, he’s always the exception to the rule. Caleb has great instincts, and Kennedy is perfect for him. I’m not sure I would have mapped them out on paper, but maybe it’s the ones that don’t pencil out too well that are meant to be. Elizabeth and I penciled out. We made sense on paper, and yet she’s had another man’s child and I’m in Loveless feeling sorry for myself. Scratch that. I’m not feeling sorry for myself. I’m just waking up from a long-drawn-out nightmare and perhaps discovering that I’m not who I thought I was. I’ve been someone else, someone better all along. At least that’s the version I choose to believe. It’s the version I’m spoon-feeding Zoey.
I shower and dress and head on over to pick her up for our next official date in which I try my best to hide the hard-on this girl has the power to invoke in me time and time again. The door opens before I hit the porch, and Zoey gives a spastic wave before stepping outside and knocking my heart, dick, and my balls right off their pedestal.
Zoey is a vision in a short white dress that clings to her like nobody’s business, clear heels I don’t believe I’ve ever seen in my life but, hot damn, they’ve already sent my boxers twitching—and that face. Zoey looks as if she should be ruling the world by way of magazine covers, not running down to Colony Hall to check out some defunct band who had their fifteen minutes, decades ago. I’m positive she shouldn’t be with me. I’ve never dated girls like Zoey, but the more I’m around her, the more I appreciate the idea. Zoey is far sweeter than her va-va-voom persona lets on.
“You are a vision in white.”
“You approve?” She bounces over with those delicious glossy lips expanding as she throws her arms around me and lands a kiss to my cheek. “I’m hoping afterwards I can drag you back to my place for a little alone time.” She gives a sly wink. “Get your mind out of the gutter. I was hoping you’d go over some of my sketches and paintings with me. See which ones I should give up for the auction.”
“Done.” I wrap an arm around her waist as I help her into the car. “And for the record, my mind was nowhere near the gutter.”
“You are a damn liar, Abel McCarthy,” Zoey breathes the words right into my face, and for a moment, I envision my tongue tracing out the inside of her thighs.
She called it. I’m a damn liar.
We head down to the Blue Crab where we meet with Caleb and Kennedy, Ace and Reese already seated at the table and they give a jovial cheer when they see us.
“Look at you!” Reese pulls Zoey in as she takes a seat next to her. “You look like you should be up on that stage tonight. I’m shocked Gavin lets you out of the house.”
Zoey trembles out a laugh at the thought of her brother. “I’ve never been good at letting a man control me.” Her eyes cut to mine a moment before she continues a conversation with Kennedy and Reese.
“What’s up?” Caleb stares over at me a bit more intense than usual. “Everything going good?”
Ace shakes his head. “Dude”—he leans in with a whisper—“you’re not really together with her, are you?”
I look to Zoey as she shares a laugh with the girls, and my heart warms at the idea of being together with her, being paired with her in general.
“We’re just hanging out. Having a good time.” I chug down half the water set before me. “We’re keeping each other company, that’s all.” I know for a fact Ace and Gavin are good friends. Not that I’m holding back on some big confession or anything because there’s nothing to confess. Yet.
The waitress comes by and takes our orders, and in a bout of uncalled-for euphoria, I announce that dinner is on me.
“In that case”—Caleb closes his menu and hands it back to the waitress—“give me the most expensive thing you’ve got. In fact, super-size it.”
Everyone at the table shares a laugh. Dinner is lighthearted and all around great. Zoey sparkles as she commandeers the conversation, peppering it with just the right amount of wit and intellectual questions. As much as I wanted to write her off in the beginning as just another pretty face, I’m pleased to see that she’s a well-rounded woman. A great find. And something about acknowledging this for the first time shakes me on some level. For so long I hadn’t even considered being with anyone but Elizabeth.
“So, Abel”—Reese leans in—“any chance you’ll ditch Collingsworth and move to Loveless forever?”
Zoey twists in her seat as if she’s suddenly interested in this as well.
“I don’t know.” I glance over to her, and her smile thaws my frozen heart. “It’d be a drive to the office.”
“One we can share,” Caleb toasts me with his water. “Face it. The air’s just cleaner up here.”
Kennedy purses her lips. “Moving to Loveless is like moving to the moon. It’s so isolated. I bet a big city boy like you could never get used to that.”
“Are you kidding? That’s why I love it so much. Isolation feels like a gift.”
Kennedy cackles out a laugh. “Areyoukidding? Nobody loves it unless you were born here or you’re running from something.”
The table grows quiet a moment as if waiting for a confession. I asked Caleb not to fill her in on what happened—partially because at the time it was still happening. She knows enough to be dangerous, though.
