“And you don’t?” he asks.
Do I?
“I can’t. You know that.”
“Says who?”
I grow irritated. “Says my entire life, Vic. Where have you been the past four years? You know I can never give her what she wants.”
A short silence follows.
“Does she know?”
“What? That she’s wasting her time with me? I don’t think so. Not yet, at least.”
“Then why did you bring her here? If you really don’t want to commit? Why bring her to your hometown?”
He doesn’t believe a word I’m saying.
“Because…” I open my mouth and close it.
Truth is, I don’t know why.
Why do I do anything when it comes to Winter Kingston these days? Question of the century, folks.
“Haze… it’s been four years since—”
One look from me. Just one.
That’s all it takes for him to stop talking.
He retracts himself. “I know, I know. I’m sorry. We said not to go there. But you’re going to have to talk about it eventually. It’s time to start living again. And that girl… she could be it.”
Does he really think I don’t know that?
“Boys, the caterers will be here soon. Get your asses off that couch and come help us set everything up,” Bea calls from the kitchen.
We exchange brief looks that mean the conversation is over and get up. We walk to the door, and one second before he turns the handle, he glances back at me.
“Listen, I don’t know how long you’re in town for, but if you ever need to talk, I’m here. I’ve had your back since kindergarten. I’m not stopping now.”
I crack a sincere smile and follow him into the living room. I can’t believe he’s saying that to me after what I did. I regret cutting him off and ghosting him for years. I don’t deserve his friendship. I stopped deserving it the second I left town with my family and started ignoring his calls. But he reminded me of things I couldn’t bring to my new life. And so, to leave those things behind…
I had to leave him, too.
Winter
“Thank you so much for dinner, guys.” I throw my arms around Bea’s neck and hug her like we’re best friends—which is funny considering we barely knew each other’s names a few hours ago. She’s a sweetheart, and I couldn’t have asked for a better person to be “stuck” with after Haze dropped the friend bomb on me.
We say our goodbyes to Vic, Bea, and Rory the pug and walk to the elevator in silence. It’s around 7:00 p.m. We’re leaving earlier than the other guests because we’ve been here the entire day and, frankly, we’ve had enough of this social thing.
Overall, the dinner party was great. It was fancy so, of course, the food was delicious. It wasn’t even that awkward with Haze—okay, maybe the free champagne helped a little—and I managed to have some fun along the way.
A friend of Vic asked for my number halfway through dinner. Haze witnessed the scene and got pissy. He didn’t say a single word to me for a good thirty minutes and kept shooting the poor guy killer looks.
There he goes again with his mixed signals. So you haven’t made a move on me once in the whole time we’ve been alone, but you can’t stand to see someone else flirt with me?
Thankfully, the ride to the lake house is filled with laughter and chitchat. The party put us into a good mood, and I’m not even interested in asking him about today’s confession. I’m done forcing things. If he wants me, he better make it clear.