Before I could decide on what to say, she kept talking.
“You can’t break her, Flynn. You can’t taint her—whatever the hell you mean by that—she’s too strong. Chiara hasalwaysknown herself, even when she was a teen. She never bowed to peer pressure or became someone different for others. If she says she wants you, then you need to trust that.”
I sighed and hung my head. Sofia took the seat next to me andbumped my shoulder with hers.
“I don’t trust myself with her, Sofia,” I admitted.
“You’ll never trust yourself with anyone if you’re willing to let her go. She’s not asking you for a wedding ring or to move in with her. She just wants you to give your relationship a real chance. Trust in yourself—in her—in the relationship, it’ll all come in time. You just have to try.”
I wanted to believe her, I really did. After being with Chiara last night and waking up with her this morning, I knew I was running out of time. The prospect of waking up without her in my arms every morning was beginning to weigh on me. Even worse was the idea of her moving on with someone else and knowing they’d wake up with her wrapped around them. They’d hold her, and touch her, and kiss her, and they’d go to bed every night with my woman in their arms.
I was totally fucked.
“Chiara isn’t getting in over her head with you. If anyone knows you, it’s her. She’s always known who you were, all the dark bits included. Stop trying to push her away in some ridiculous attempt to keep her pure in your eyes. Chiara is her own person with her own needs and desires, and apparently, you can give what she needs. Stop treating her like a porcelain doll.”
I chuckled, thinking of our activities last night. “I definitely don’t treat her like a porcelain doll.”
“Oh,ew, gross. I didnotneed to know that!”
I laughed, and she shook her head before standing up.
“I want my friends happy, Flynn, both of you. Also, you two are throwing around some serious pheromones and it’s starting to disrupt the native wildlife. Just get on with it already so the rest of us stop getting your residuals.”
Chapter Seventeen
Chiara
The silence stretched and grew even more awkward, and Sofia still wasn’t back, neither was Kate.
Ellis went between ignoring my presence completely to staring at me so intently I was feeling all kinds of uncomfortable.
“Anyway,” I began, putting my champagne flute down. “I have a few things to get packed up in my room, so I’m gonna go get started.”
“Seriously?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
“What?”
He shook his head. “You can’t even be alone in a room with me for longer than a few minutes without finding a lame ass excuse to bail? We used to be friends, Ara. What the fuck happened?”
I was shocked at the anger in his voice and shook my head. “We are friends, Ellis. Or at least, I thought we were.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” he demanded.
“Well, you barely talk to me anymore, and this entire trip you’ve kind of been an ass.”
“How did you expect me to react when you show up with my asshole cousin who I can’t stand?”
“What the hell is your problem with Flynn? From the day he came to live with you, you’ve had it out for hm. I could never understand how him losing his parents became such a problem for you.”
A muscle in Ellis’s jaw ticked and I waited, wondering if he’d finally tell me. What the hell was with these two?
“Seriously, Ellis. I’m listening. Talk to me. What went on between you two that neither of you will explain yourselves?”
“It’s nothing,” he snapped.
“Nothing. Right. So that’s why neither of you can be in the same room without trying to tear into each other. Nothing is why he hasn’t come home in ten years and why Trev and Carol hardly see him.”
Ellis whirled around to face me, eyes wide. “They’remyparents. Why the fuck should it matter how often he sees them?”
