“I understand if you want to live here now, but don’t cut us out. We all lost something that night.”
“Did you?”
He narrows his eyes. “You think I didn’t care? That this was all some game to me, and losing you was nothing?”
I wrap my arms around my chest, as if the pressure might weaken this force pulling me toward him by the solar plexus, this inexplicable need to be closer and let him wrap me in his arms. “Losing me? When was I ever yours to lose?”
He jerks his gaze away from me, slides off his stool, and downs the rest of his beer. “Thanks. I guess that clears up where we stand after everything.”
I open my mouth to apologize but swallow the words and meet his steady gaze.
Then he backs away and grabs his bags off the bar. He pulls an envelope from his pocket and hands it to me. “I was going to leave this for you with the barista next door, but I guess I can save myself the trouble.”
“What is it?” I ask, staring at the crisp black calligraphy that reads Ellie Courdrey.
“An invitation to Ava and Jake’s wedding. Despite what you seem to think of me, I’m not fucking my future sister-in-law.”
“Their wedding?”
He nods. “They thought about canceling after everything, but . . .” He stares at me for a long beat. “They decided to put love first.”
That feels like a jab. At me? At them? I don’t know. “I don’t want to go back there.”
“Maybe it’s not always about what you want.” He shrugs as if it’s no different to him either way, but I can tell by the tension in his shoulders that it matters a lot.
He steps forward—too close—and I let him, closing my eyes at his scent. Then a flash.
He’s over me. The weight of him presses into my hips, his calloused hands holding my face, his fingers in my hair. “You’re sure?”
I nod. Slide my hands down his back and lift my hips. “Yes. Please.”
He searches my eyes. “No regrets.”
I hold on to the memory of this man, wanting to examine it, to figure out what it means, but I’m too distracted by his closeness in this moment. He’s big. Strong. Warm.
He lo
wers his mouth to my ear. “I never stopped loving you. Even when you told me to. Even when you chose him.” And then he walks away.
Levi
“I take it grabbing dinner didn’t go so well?”
I turn around from where I’ve been tinkering in the kitchen and see Ava stepping out of the bedroom and wiping the sleep from her eyes. “Shit. I’m sorry. I woke you up, didn’t I?”
“No, not at all. I can totally sleep through banging cabinet doors and the mutterings of angry men.”
I wince. “Sorry.”
She grins. “It’s not a big deal, Levi. I needed to get up anyway.” She scans the carryout boxes on the kitchen island, then the empty beer bottle by the sink and the half-empty one in my hand. “What’s gotten into you?”
I grip the bottle too tightly. “I saw her. I saw Ellie.” Ava’s eyes go wide and her face turns so hopeful that it hurts me to say more. “She came into the bar where I was grabbing our dinner.”
“Is she good? Did she say anything? Is she coming home?”
I shake my head. “She . . . It was weird. I don’t . . .” I don’t even want to put into words the way she treated me, the way she was so cavalier about not wanting us in her life anymore. “She said she’s too scared to come home.”
Ava presses her palm to her chest. “Of course she is. They still don’t know who hurt her, and—”