"Yep," I said curtly to let her know I wasn't interested in this subject.Nina didn't get the hint.
"She looks good," she said, almost angrily."Thought she married some hotshot doctor or something, but here she is back in pathetic, dry and dusty Trayton."
I glanced over at her."If it's so pathetic and dry and dusty, then why don't you move?Last time we talked, you had a remote job."
"Sure do and it's awesome, but every time I think about leaving this town, it pulls me back.Like gravity."She rubbed her shoulder against mine."Guess it's too hard to leave all these gorgeous Stone boys behind.Besides, there just aren't that many cool places to live.But if I'd married a rich doctor, well that would be a whole different thing.I noticed you two aren't talking?Not interested in catching up on old times?"
"Nope," I said dryly.
Nina sat there for a few more minutes and realized this chat wasn't going anywhere."You're very boring tonight, Theo Stone."She got up with a huff and marched off.She nearly crashed into Lacey as she walked around the corner.They just missed each other, but Nina took the time to glance back at me with a smug grin before walking out of sight.
Lacey and I slammed into another one of our stuck gazes.She smiled again.I pulled my gaze away and pretended to be interested in the skating, even though Cormac could have flown fifty feet through the air with his board on fire, and I wouldn't have noticed.My entire body tensed as I saw the glow of Lacey's white dress from the corner of my eye.She sat down next to me, but not close like Nina.Even so, I could feel the heat of her body wash over me, and I had to work hard not to react.
"Thought we could talk," she said softly enough that the skateboard sounds nearly drowned out her words.
"Not sure what there is to talk about."It was such a fucking predictable response, but having her so near was wiping my brain of thoughts.
"You know I had to go.Joan Plunkett was basically going to extort a million dollars out of my parents and me.I couldn't let that happen to them.I was in too deep.There was no clean way out."
"And yet, here you sit," I said and got up.I walked toward the sand feeling like a toad, a toad with a broken fucking heart.
"Theo, shit, let's just talk a second.You're acting like such an asshole," she called as the two of us made our way through the crowd.Other conversations stopped, and it seemed that everyone had turned to listen.I stopped when I reached the sand.Everyone was looking at us.Stella and Jules were standing together whispering something to each other, and Lacey stood ten feet away with a look that bordered on tears.
"What do you want to talk about, Lacey?Do you want me to just say it out loud, to everyone, all these people we grew up with?You broke me.There.And you didn't just break me once.I'd pushed you out of my mind and heart.It wasn't fucking easy, I can tell you that.But then you texted and you called and you fired up all the same feelings.Then bang, you fucking broke me again.Well done.But I'm not going to go for three."All eyes were still on us."And the rest of you, mind your own fucking business."
Lacey spun around and ran toward the house.Jules and Stella followed her.Crusoe had been making out with someone near the firepit.They'd stopped to watch too.I waved to him as I marched past to let him know I was done with the party.I was just fucking done period.
TWENTY-TWO
LACEY
Iwas still catching my breath from the whole disastrous evening.I'd talked myself into the damn party because I wanted to see Theo.I was sure he'd behave civilly and we'd talk and then walk hand in hand off into a rainbow-filled sky.Instead, he was a brooding, angry jerk, and I looked like the biggest fool in the world.I shouldn't have followed him after he left the yard, but it didn't seem fair that I didn't get to say my piece.After all, I was a lawyer, and that was what I was trained to do.It seemed working online writing trusts and arranging simple divorces was erasing that edge I'd once had to launch an effective defense, or maybe I'd just been so flattened by Theo's anger and harsh words I couldn't muster that defense.Either way, this was over.We were done.Jules and Stella had tried to console me, and they reminded me that he was still recuperating from an injury and a big setback in his racing, but that wasn't it.Theo hated me.I was a runaway bride who took off with the boy she'd always loved only to immediately turn around and run back to the groom I'd left at the altar.Theo didn't care about or understand the cruel politics of the uber-wealthy world.All he knew was I ran with him and then I turned right around and ran back.
I'd pulled into the parking lot of a gas station and mini-mart.I decided to stay there, watching the customers stream in and out with their six-packs of beer and bags of chips until a reasonable amount of time had passed and my puffy eyes had vanished.I loved my parents, and it had been fun staying with them, but somehow, they'd managed to return me right back to my teens.Mom would, no doubt, grill me about the party and ask who I saw and what everyone had been doing since high school.They both usually fell asleep in front of a blaring television by ten o'clock.That was half an hour away.Then I could sneak back inside and go to bed without having to provide details about a party that I only attended long enough to get chewed out by the man I loved and in front of all my old schoolmates.
I turned on some quiet music and rested back against the seat.A couple of teens walked out of the market holding hands and carrying cherry red slushes.The girl laughed about something and leaned quickly forward to kiss the guy on the mouth.He seemed pleased with whatever he'd said because it earned him a kiss.The slushes reminded me of the giant pink stain on Theo's car seat.He still owned the same car.He'd always loved that thing, and I found it adorable that he'd never traded it in for something better.And the stain was still there, faded and sentimental.Theo never got mad about me spilling that drink.He never had harsh words for me, and that was why tonight felt like a terrible stab through the heart.He'd talked about being broken, but he was the one who broke me.I left town thinking the boy who would always have my heart had decided to toss it aside for Everly, a girl I never trusted.But stupidly, when Everly told me Theo had made a move on her, I believed her.Why had I been so clueless?Or was I really just trying to find a good reason to follow my dream to college?I'd felt so guilty about getting accepted, and when I told Theo I was moving across the country, he looked devastated.Still, we made plans, delusional as they were, that we'd visit each other almost every weekend.But we both knew that would be impossible.Maybe when Everly tried to put a wedge between us, I grabbed it and pushed it in deeper by convincing myself that Everly was telling the truth.It was too difficult to analyze something that had happened years ago, but there was one thing that needed no analysis.I'd been madly in love with Theo Stone my whole life, and I left town basically dragging my heart behind me.And now he was trying to make me the bad guy.He was trying to blame me for all the heartache and pain.
"Fuck that."I started the car and left the parking lot.I knew that Theo and his cousins had been living in the old house on the north end of the beach.It wasthathouse in the neighborhood, the one that kids would drive up to on a moonless night to scare the shit out of themselves with tales of ghosts and murders.It had been vacant for years, but somehow, the Stone boys had managed to convince the owner to rent it out.It was a daring move by both landlord and tenant because the old place always looked as if one good wind would knock it to the ground.I knew they were there because Jules had posted photos of a Halloween party at the house a few years back.I remembered scrolling through the photos looking for that one picture, but Theo had been wearing one of those giant rubber masks, so instead of seeing his handsome face, I was looking at a goblin with bloody fangs.
I pulled off the main road and drove up the long, winding dirt path that led to the house.The overgrown trees lining the road took me back to those "truth or dare" nights when my friends and I would dare each other to walk up that road and even knock on the door of the abandoned house.Theo drove me up there a few times and pretended to see menacing shadows so that I'd climb into his lap.The joke was on him.I was never scared.I just wanted to sit on his lap.
Theo had stomped out of the party before me, and I could only assume that everyone else was still out on the sand or hanging out in Stella's cottage getting wasted and dancing to loud music.It was entirely possible Theo went somewhere else or, worse, maybe he'd found someone to go home with.I could very well be walking in on them, but I needed to let him know how I felt.He'd certainly had his chance and in front of everyone.That was my fault, but I was desperate to talk to him.I should never have started that conversation in the middle of a crowded party.If he wasentertaining, then I'd deal with that disappointment.All I knew was it was my turn to rant and rave.
I'd driven up to the house full of resolve and confidence, but the second I saw his car, parked by itself in front of the old crumbling house, a major case of nerves hit me.I closed my eyes and performed several rounds of a breathing exercise I'd learned in law school.Law school could get pretty intense, and some days, if I let it, anxiety raised its ugly head and ruined my day.
I didn't allow myself any more time to think or reason or talk myself out of this.If nothing else it would be nice to get a few things off my chest.I got out of the car, walked gingerly up the very rickety steps and knocked on the even more rickety door.One strong rap and it seemed the whole thing might come off its hinges.I could hear music coming from somewhere in the house and immediately envisioned Theo in bed with a woman having wild sex to music.I knocked once more but louder.The door held, but that was about the max my knuckles could take.My big, bold plan had been foiled by an old door and some loud music.I considered texting him, but I was sure he wouldn't respond.
I turned, almost relieved that I wasn't going to get my chance to rant, then the door opened behind me, and the music grew louder.I took a deep breath and swung around.Theo was standing in the doorway, shirtless, heartbreakingly handsome and looking stunned to see me."Ace," he said quietly.
I stomped toward him, and he backed up before I could poke him angrily in the chest."No, you don't get to call me by that nickname because you were the only person to call me that, and when I hear it, I think about that time when we were together.That time when we were so fucking in love that absolutely nothing else mattered except being together."We were standing in the center of the entryway, and I realized I'd never been inside the house.It looked as bad as I expected."You think I broke you, but let me tell you something, pal, I left here so brokenhearted that I basically dragged around campus my entire first semester, and I got mostly Cs.That was your fault."
He stared at me with that intense brown gaze."First of all, Cs are nothing to sneeze at.I used to fucking dance when I got one, and you still managed to graduate and become a big-shot lawyer."
"I help people with wills and business disputes and divorces.I think you can drop the wholebig-shotinsult.And yes, I graduated.It took me some time.I texted you a few times and tried to call but you didn't respond, so I told myself I needed to leave behind my hometown, my youth and, most importantly, the boy I loved and get on with adulthood.Turns out adulthood mostly sucks, but that's a rant for another day.And thanks for humiliating me in front of all of Trayton.Asshole."
I turned and stomped off, forgetting about the frail steps on the porch.I cried out as my foot broke through one of the steps and the wood scraped my leg painfully.His footsteps thundered behind me.
"Ace," Theo blurted.His warm body hovered over me.
