“Well, Ezra is uninterested in letting anyone help him, and I think he probably said something to Ellie that Sean didn’t like.”
“Takes a lot to send him flying off the rails.” Summer shuts the menu and sets it to the side.
“Yeah, well, Ezra can be a lot at times. He’s really good at bothering people when he feels like it.” I grab the menu and after a couple of minutes we have our orders placed and are sipping on our drinks.
Summer leans forward, folding her arms. “You look happier than you did last night.”
“Well, I bought a building for a future restaurant after I saw you.”
“It was nearly one in the morning.” Summer leaps out of her chair and rushes over to hug me, laughing and bouncing around. “I can’t believe you’re going to have your own restaurant!”
“It’s going to take time. The building has good bones, but the interior is a bit of a disaster, and it’s going to need some renovations to bring it into this decade. And then I have to figure out a menu and hire people and train them and all of that, but I think it’s going to be good.”
“Itwillbe good.” Summer sits back down in her seat as our food arrives. “So… Ezra.”
“What about him?” I glance at her before cutting into my steak, not sure where this conversation is going.
“You’re seeing him, and it seems like you actually like him despite the fact that he kidnapped you and held you hostage.”
“He’s not what I thought. He lied to me for a long time, but there’s a part of him that cares for me. And I don’t know, the more time I spend with him, the more I like him. He’s not like anyone else I’ve been around.”
“He’s family to the enemy.”
“So are Gia and Zoe, but they’re not being interrogated.”
Summer shrugs. “They have been, plenty of times. I don’t know this guy beyond the one night we all went bowling, so I just want to make sure he’s good for you. I don’t want to have to worry about you getting your heart broken.”
“I don’t think you need to worry about my heart being broken.”
Summer sighs and eats a piece of her lobster benedict. “Come on. You have to have some worries about this guy. Not a single person ever goes into a relationship without any worry about anything.”
I sigh and push some of the steak around on my plate, sopping up the chimichurri.
There’s a tight feeling in my chest as I shrug, not sure how much I want to tell her. I’ve never been one to talk to my family about much, but Summer is my twin. If I’m going to open up to anyone, it’s going to be her.
And it might be nice to talk to someone, for once.
I eat another bite of steak before setting my fork to the side. “Okay, so I have some worries about the entire thing. Like, I don’t know that this is ever going to work between the two of us in the long term. He’s loyal to Noah to a fault, I think.”
“You’re still alive. I think he might value you more than he values Noah.”
“Maybe.” I bite the inside of my cheek. “He’s hard to read at times, and everything is getting closer to reaching a boiling point.”
“Yeah, but if he was going to take Noah’s side against you, I think he would’ve done it by now, don’t you?”
I run a hand through my hair. “I think so. I don’t know, but I think I really like him, and I want this to work out.”
Summer crosses one leg over the other, polishing off the last of her breakfast. “What’s the problem, then? If you really think this could be a good thing between the two of you, what’s making you worry about it so much?”
“One or both of us could be dead at the end of the day today. We don’t live the kind of life where there’s a guarantee for tomorrow morning to come, and I don’t know what to think about that.”
“I think it means you have to take love when it comes to you and worry about the rest later. It might be time for you to let go and just go with it instead of worrying all the time.”
I snort and reach for the jug of mimosa, filling my glass again before looking out at the people walking around, heading who knows where, none of them worrying about getting killed the second they’re alone.
After downing half my drink, I look at her, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in my chest. “I really do care about Ezra, but with all these fights he’s doing, it seems like he’s trying to destroy himself for the sake of having a family.”
“And?”
