I found that out later.
She went left up the hallway, not even another glance in my direction.
I went right. And I didn’t even look back at her. Much.
Maybe some fairytales, twisted as they were, were meant to end just like that—before they even got started.
Ours wasn’t one of them.
Chapter One
Dane
Twelve years later…
It felt like all the angels in heaven were collectively pissing on my car.
Apparently, when your entire life has suddenly crashed and burned, there’s this one moment right in the middle of it where you find yourself sitting in the smoldering, soggy ashes, and it all really hits you. Right in the nuts.
Trust me. I was sitting in the middle of it.
Rolf actually had to slow down so the windshield wipers at high-speed could clear his visibility enough to drive.
I sat alone in the backseat, my ever-buzzing phone going off in my pocket. It was a dreary, gray Tuesday morning in October, I’d had approximately three hours of sleep in as many days, and it really didn’t surprise me that the universe or the weather hated me. But it did surprise me how much I could actively loathe a place I hadn’t been to, or even thought much about, in over a decade.
Welcome to Vancouver.
This was the first time I’d been back to the west coast of Canada since graduating high school, and it wasn’t a pleasure trip. Business trips that were ordered under threat of dismissal by your boss—who also happened to be your mother—rarely were, I imagined.
I finally got sick of hearing it and fished out my phone to check the display.
Pure Fuckery
I bit back a sigh and took the call. “To what do I owe this incredible disappointment.”
“That’s what she said, last night, I’m sure,” said my best friend, Shane.
“How much money do you need?”
“I’m hurt, Dane. When have I ever asked you for money?”
“Never. Usually you ask me out for beers, which really means strippers and a road trip, then hit me up with the bill.”
“Billionaire problems, huh?”
I quietly rolled my eyes and waited for him to get to the point.
“Listen,” he said, “you don’t call, you don’t write, and now I hear you’re in town and you didn’t even ping my ass on Grindr.”
Shit.How the hell did he know?
I’d landed like twenty minutes ago. I had no plans to see anyone, to do anything other than absolutely necessary business while I was here. Didn’t even tell anyone I was flying in, except…fuckingLex.
Jesus Christ, my cousin needed to be fit with a muzzle.
I did not need this right now.
I couldn’t have been more anti-social these last few days if I was on house arrest, which wasn’t far from the truth. I really didn’t want to see anyone I didn’t have to see right now.
