“Jay.” He waited for her to meet his gaze. “I need to ask you something about that night at the bar, eleven years ago. The night Maggie broke up with me.”
“What about it?”
“I couldn’t find my phone for a few hours. You were the one who eventually found it and returned it to me.”
“So?”
He stepped closer. “Maggie had texted and called me that night, but none of that was on my phone when I got it back.”
She straightened. “What are you trying to say?”
“I’m not saying anything. I’m asking. Did you delete those texts and clear the missed phone calls?”
It was small. A slight tightening of her eyes. A quick inhale of breath.
Shit. “You did.”
“I thought I was doing you a favor. You barely saw each other. She moved to LA instead of following you to Coronado. You needed to let her go.”
“That wasn’t your fucking decision!”Goddammit, he was angry. Beyond angry, so furious he saw red. “We’re done.”
“Ethan—”
“You don’t call me again. You don’t text me. As far as you’re concerned, I don’t exist.”
“Come on!”
He stormed back into The Pancake Bar without a backward glance.
29
Ethan traced the ray of morning light that broke through the curtains over Maggie’s cheek. She looked so peaceful when she slept.
She lay on her back, her face turned to the side and a hand beneath her cheek. She was almost angelic.
He wasn’t sure how long he’d been watching her, but he couldn’t move. Not a single muscle. It was like time paused and wrapped around them, holding them exactly where they were.
He wanted to memorize her. The gentle curve of her lips. The way her skin glistened like porcelain.
Her head shifted, causing a lock of hair to fall over her forehead. He reached up and slipped the lock behind her ear. As he grazed her skin, it almost felt like electricity running into his body, but the good kind. The kind that shocked the body to life.
When she closed her eyes even tighter, he held his breath, waiting to meet her gaze.
Then he did. Her hazel-brown eyes seared into him, and yeah, it hit as hard as he knew it would.
“Hey.” Her breathy voice whispered over his skin.
“Morning, honey.”
A slow smile curved her lips. “How long have you been looking at me like that?”
“Since the day we met.”
Her smile softened. “If that’s the case, how did I ever question how you felt about me?”
“I ask myself the same thing every day.”
A bit of her smile slipped. “I’m sorry.”
