His brows slam together. “You regret it?”
“No!” I rush out. “God, no. I’m sorry that I…complicated…things.”
“Complicated?” His one-sided grin is devastating. “How the hell can you possibly think this has been a complication? Now that I’ve seen your face, I’ll get to bring it back with me into the darkness. You, Charlotte, have been the most precious of gifts.”
*
Gram was already asleep in the chair. With Rhys carrying her inside, I stayed by the lake, shoes off and toes in the cool water. I close my eyes and turn my face to the sun, letting the heat wrap around me as the brutal hammer of time slams against my brain.
I wish I can unhear how everything’s changed for him now. Nothing can stop the inevitable. He’s leaving. Cupid matched us, but as Rhys said, we have free will. Love, much like a fart, when forced, ends up shit.
Look what happened to Jason and me. His family forced our relationship between us, and it turned out to be a giant turd. The difference is that when we divorced, I moved into a cute house across town. When Rhys and I end, he’ll be in a void and I’ll be here, both of us alone and both of us miserable.
Apparently, Cupid is an asshole because instalove doesn’t exist. He set us up for failure from the start.
“Fuck me,” I breathe.
“You beg so pretty. Remind me to make you do it later.”
Startled, I spin to see Rhys directly behind me.Jesus Christ. Did he switch on Stealth Mode? Sure, I made him an assassin, but my gawd. “Better make it good, then.”
Rhys drags his gaze over me, from the top of my brown curls, over my body as if he’s seeing right through my cream knit tank and jean shorts, down to my bare feet submerged in the water. “Trust and believe, I will.”Goddamn. He nods at Gram’s grungy yellow house and at the tranquil lake I adore. “You grew up here.”
It’s not a question. Still, I answer with a wistful, “Yes.”
Rhys removes his shoes and rolls up the legs of his jeans to join me in the shallow water. With him beside me, his presence is oddly comforting. “You know everything about me.”
“I know what I selected on the app.” The brush of our hands is electric. “I don’t know a thing about you beyond that, Rhys Ravenstone. Not the things that actually matter about a person.”
Our hands touch again. This time, he locks our fingers together as if it’s the most natural thing in the world. “Like?”
“I don’t know your favorite color or food or if you prefer winter over summer. We already found out Marvel is your jam, which is a huge plus.” I lift on my tiptoes to muss his hair. “Just because I picked dark hair over light and brown eyes over blue doesn’t mean I knowyou, Rhys. It’s like you said. Cupid gave you free will. No one controls you or dictates who you are butyou.”
But only for three more days, then—poof—he’s gone, back to the void.
Lost forever.
Rhys turns and traces a knuckle along my jawline before tilting my head up. The touch of his lips is the sweetest kiss I’ve ever had. Not sexual. Not demanding. It’s soft, not asking for a damn thing. Then he looks out over the lake with a slow and sexy grin tugging at his mouth. “Being here, seeing this place, I can almost imagine you as a carefree child splashing in this water.”
“Sorry to burst your bubble, but I never played as a kid,” I admit sadly.
“Not at all?” He sounds honestly baffled. “Don’t all children play?”
“I didn’t,” I counter with a shrug.
Rhys snakes his arm around my waist and pulls me close. “Why not, Charlotte?”
“Because I was busy caring for Gram and mourning my parents.”
“I see,” he says.
But he doesn’t see. I tear myself out of his embrace to pace in the water, my feet kicking up the sediment. “You don’t understand. We were all we had.Iwas allshehad. The car accident… It didn’t just kill my parents. It took everything from us. It took everything from her because it washeridea for them to go to Manhattan to see that show. She couldn’t have known that fucking driver would speed right through the stop sign. Nor could she have placed the tree in the exact spot for my parents’ car to hit it. You said life’s not fair, and it’s not. That day, that was life not being fair. It was the universe lining up perfectly to kill both my parents, destroying my grandmother here.” I tap my head, then my heart. “And here, leaving me alone to figure things out.”
“How old were you when they died?”
“Seven,” I spit out like poison.
“I’m sorry, Charlotte,” Rhys says quietly and gruffly. “You carry a burden no one should have to suffer.”
