She doesn’t reply.
I’m sure it’ll be a while, now that she’s living a normal life with my brother and running the best bookstore in Portland.
I pace the driveway, waiting for an answer.
This always happens when I don’t want it to.
The second I let my guard down just an itty bit.
Historically, I’m drawn to terrible men.
I fall too hard, too fast, and get stupid fast.
Then comes the cannonball to the heart.
Kelso, the only prick I truly dated for years, just played me for my looks and my name.
I didn’t see it at the time, but looking back, it was so obvious.
The way he had Margot Blackthorn in huge letters on our assigned seats at this stupid crypto conference with his venture capital friends should’ve been a dead giveaway.
Back when I thought he liked me for me, I thought he saw past the Blackthorn mystique.
I thought he admired the real me.
But all he wanted in the end was my name next to his, my smile plastered on his Instagram, and eventually, my money backing his dumbass investments in a questionable start-up.
Ethan warned me off him more than once, but I was lovestruck and I thought I felt something.
Stupid and in love?
That’s a miserable place to be.
In the end, the way he broke my heart was vicious, getting so careless with his cheating it didn’t matter if I found out.
He couldn’t just end it like a normal human being and spare me the agony.
Especially not after I saidnoto a ten-million-dollar investment in crypto-backed meme tokens for public toilet access.
Even now, my heart stings a little, the way it always does whenever I think about him.
If I hadn’t been so easily charmed, so obsessed, I would’ve seen it coming.
I’m not close enough to Kane to be damaged like that—not yet—but we’re definitely close enough for me todosome damage.
He’s a father.
And I still know basically nothing about him.
Hattie’s obviously busy, so I give up and drive to the Babins’ place next door.
I’ve never been here before, but it’s nicely marked with a big sign in blue letters with hand-painted blueberries surrounding their name.
It’s charming in a rustic way.
The house itself looks like a large cottage, a little worn but in an endearing way.
A bit like the owners, I suppose.
