When she didn’t answer right away, I feared that I’d misjudged the situation. That I’d upset her once again. One of the pillars of our relationship was that we allowed the other to be who they wanted to be. We supported each other and encouraged each other, and we never pushed.
Leave it to me to make a bonehead move. “I mean?—”
“Is there a journalist job available?”
My entire body froze when her initial response wasn’t, “Hell, no.” Suddenly, I was scrambling to say something to keep her interested. “I—um—I can look into it,” I hurried to say. Then I paused. “If you’re serious about moving here.” I needed her to say the words. I needed to hear that she would come. If she confirmed it, then I would do everything in my power to get her here.
I’d go to the ends of the earth to make it possible.
“Yeah, I think so,” she said.
That was good enough. Despite my best efforts to remain calm, her words made my heart sing loud and off-key.
“I think it’s time I move on from here. Start my life somewhere new. A place where my past doesn’t haunt me.” She chuckled. “Do you think you could handle me there? You’d have to promise to not abandon me once you become some hotshot realtor.”
She was so oblivious to how I felt about her. Abandoning her was the last thing on my mind. “Of course. I’ll take you under my wing, baby bird.”
She was silent for a moment. “Baby bird?”
I shook my head. Happiness had infiltrated my brain and was making me say strange things. I needed to get it together and focus. “If you move here, I promise that I will not abandon you, and I won’t use dumb nicknames.”
Even though I couldn’t see her, I knew exactly what she was doing. She was chewing on her thumbnail like she did every time she was thinking. Her eyebrows would be drawn together and her gaze focused on a spot in front of her as she processed her thoughts.
She let out a sigh, and I celebrated inside. I knew that sigh. It was her concession sigh. “Fine. If you find me a job at a paper, I’ll move to Harmony Island.”
My smile was huge as I perched on the edge of the couch. “Really?”
“Really.”
“Promise?”
She was quiet for a moment before she said, “Promise.”
1
ELLA
I stupidly thoughtthat Asher would come back after he stormed off this morning. I thought he would knock on my door, admit that his confession had been a joke, and we’d have a good laugh while we tried to figure out how we moved forward in our friendship.
I’d thought wrong.
I spent the thirty minutes after his departure aimlessly walking around my apartment, trying to process what had just happened. Once I finally got myself together enough to get dressed in a pair of yoga pants and an oversized hoodie, I made my way into the kitchen to make breakfast.
His words played in my mind as I stood in front of my griddle, staring at the sizzling butter while I made French toast.
“I did it for you, because…it’s always been you.”
I blinked, my stomach twisting at the memory. Those words sat like a rock in my stomach. I loved my friend, I did, but I didn’tlove,love him like that. I chewed on my thumbnail. How long had he felt this way? How long had he been hiding it from me? Were there signs?
I tried to think back over our years of friendship. Was there a moment where I’d felt his feelings for me switch?
Nothing came to mind. Asher was always nice to me. He always took care of me. He always protected me. He was always a great friend to me…so when did that all change? And how had I not noticed?
An acrid smell assaulted my nose as I quickly pushed all thoughts of Asher to the back of my mind and glanced down at the sizzling piece of French toast in front of me. I grabbed my spatula and hurriedly removed it from the heat. I held it suspended in the air as I reached over and opened the cupboard. Once I’d collected a plate, I flipped the slice over to find that it was completely charred.
I sighed as I stared down at the blackened bread. It was an accurate representation of my life right now. I scraped the spatula against the burned side. “Get it together, Ella,” I said as I tipped my head back and closed my eyes. If this was a predictor of how things were going to go today, this week, or this month, I might as well crawl back into bed and hide under the covers, vowing never to come out.
The situation with Asher was a distraction that I couldn’t afford. Not when I’d just pissed off the wealthiest family in town and my career was most likely non-existent. I needed to be on my A game if I was going to fight back, and I needed my best friend by my side to help me. But said best friend had just walked out on me, and I doubted he had any intention of coming back.
