“Connor is fine. Probably having a great time. Long story short, but Connor isn’t here.”
“What?”
“Ford extended his camp for another week, and he is staying with his aunt. As much as I want to strangle Ford for doing that without consulting me, I know that Connor wanted to. Anyway, that is the least of our worries.”
“How so? Ford completely made a parenting decision without you.”
I shake off the notion. “It’s Ford, he would never do anything he thought wasn’t in Connor’s interests, and besides, the camp is run by Ford’s team, and he helps out, so he can check in on Connor a few times this week.”
“You are far more chill than I would be.”
“That would be because it’s only the icing on the cake.” I hold up my finger to pause her while Lena looks at me in anticipation. “Ford wants me to stay here this week… to…reevaluateour situation.”
Her eyes grow big. “Didn’t see that coming.” She brings her fingers to her chin in contemplation. “Or did I? Hmmm… yeah, saw it coming.” Lena grabs her water bottle for a drink.
“He got me an engagement ring.”
She spits out her water. “Huh?”
I have to smile to myself because it’s such a Ford thing to do, go a step too far if he knows it will make me smile. “I mean, it’s kind of for pretend. He just wants to make Margo happy.” Except I saw the conviction in Ford’s eyes, and the ring feels like part of his long game.
“Okay, so what are you doing then? I mean, why didn’t you get back in your car and drive back to Hollows?”
“I promised I would see Margo tomorrow.”
“And tonight you will just…” She draws it out.
I sigh and roll to my back. “That’s the problem. I’m under the same roof as Ford, and he threw one hell of an offer at me. I’ve been programmed to ignore whatever we left behind, but...”
A sly smile forms on Lena’s mouth. “Brielle, I don’t think you ever left behind the connection between you and Ford.”
“Doesn’t mean I should jump into bed with him.”
“Is that what he’s expecting?”
“I mean, he didn’t say it as such, but I just kind of—”
Lena interrupts. “Assumed, because your subconscious has a fantasy it wants to play out.”
I flop like a pancake to my stomach and attempt to defend my thoughts. “Do not judge me for noticing he has aged well. I mean, he literally has women throwing themselves at him, I would be blind to pretend otherwise.”
She chuckles at me. “It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not. What if we crash and burn again? It’s taken ten years to get over him.”
“You never got over him,” she corrects me.
Lena is keeping me in check, damn it.
“This isn’t some guy who I lost my virginity to and then see him again at a high school reunion. It’s Ford. He’s the father of our child, the man I see on a regular basis.”
“He could also be the man whom you are missing an opportunity with.”
I snort a sound because that’s the joke of life on me. “I think that’s what scares me the most. What if it’s everything I imagined and then some? It’ll be a reminder that for the last ten years I didn’t have that.”
Lena clicks her tongue and smacks her lips out then back. “Good thing we don’t go back in time then, we go forward.”
I think for a few seconds. “Maybe. Anyhow, I should go. I have to deal with this.” I hold up the ring box.
