Oh, fuck.
“Hey babe,” he said as his eyes moved briskly in Logan’s direction. “That was really something.”
I smiled back at him, but my body was suddenly riddled with nervous energy. I made an attempt to ease the expression on my face, but the wave of emotions that flowed through me was likely as obvious as a literal elephant in the room would have been.
I made the terrible mistake of flicking my eyes to Logan again, noting the hint of confusion on his face as he watched me falter, before I returned my gaze back to Danny. He didn’t miss the move, and his expression sank.
“Thanks, Danny.” My voice was breathy and tight. I didn’t know what else to say. Everything that had just happened between Logan and I was certainly not fair to him, and the guilt of that tore through me.
There was no going back, though. And I knew it. The look on Logan’s face during that song was all the proof I needed that he felt the same way that I did, at least tonight. We were drawn together like magnets. Even if it was fleeting, even if I’d caught him off guard in an unexpected moment of weakness—hell, even if this was all it ever would be—it was enough for me to know that I wouldn’t be able to focus on anyone else.
It was something that I’d tried so damn hard to convince myself wasn’t real. It would have been easier if it weren’t real, this incessant tugging. I’d tried to move on from it, to run from it, to be with nice guys like Danny who may not have been the loves of my life, but who were at least reciprocating their feelings in a meaningful way.
I sighed, deigning myself to the honesty that I know Danny deserved. “Look . . . I’m sorry. I didn’t know he’d be here tonight.”
Danny’s eyes lit with surprise before the hostility set in. “So, you know him?” His voice dripped with anger.
“Yes. I know him,” I replied, keeping my tone matter-of-fact.
Danny scoffed. “Have you been seeing him this whole time?” The hurt in his tone was obvious, and I felt myself sink further into how shitty I was feeling.
“No—it’s not like that. I’ve never beenwithhim, not really. But I’ve known him my whole life and . . . it’s complicated. I thought I’d moved on, that I didn’t carry these feelings anymore. But . . .” I paused. “I guess I do. I’m so sorry.”
Danny turned his angry eyes back toward the direction of the table that Logan sat at, no doubt bristling in an attempt to intimidate him. I kept focus on his face, stopping myself from looking over at Logan again. I didn’t want to make this worse.
Danny looked back at me with a viciousness that I never would have expected to see coming from him. “Good luck with that, Amelia.” The words spit out from his mouth like venom, and it caught me by surprise. “Actually, good luck to him, because you’re a fucking shit girlfriend anyway.”
Danny moved past me, heading for the bar’s exit and bumping hard into my shoulder as he went. He clearly never expected anything like this to happen, and was probably embarrassed that someone he was dating could be interested in someone else. He was smart, good looking, and had girls ogling him all the time—this sort of thing didn’t happen to guys like him.
Taking a deep breath, I turned and faced Logan again. To my surprise, he was standing in front of the table he’d been sitting at, as if he’d been about to approach me. Or, more likely, had been about to approach Danny when he saw him purposely bump into me.
He stood frozen as he regarded me carefully. His expression was a mix of guilt, frustration, and longing. I didn’t miss the slight shake of his head as he looked down at his shoes, took in a visible, chest-expanding breath, then turned around and walked out the door.
ChapterNineteen
“What a fucking prick,”Mackenzie scoffed with disdain. She had a certain way of speaking in which she enunciated every syllable, and hearing her call Noah a prick felt especially dramatic because of it.
“I know, right.” I picked up my glass of champagne—because it was brunch, after all—and took a long sip. Mackenzie shook her head and picked up her own glass.
“Are you okay?” There was real concern on her face. It wasn’t the first time she’d given me this look, either. I’d been on the receiving end of it when I told her about Paul’s groping hands the day after prom night, when I got so sick with the flu freshman year of college that I missed almost a week of classes, and after our graduation trip to Mexico when I was an emotional, blubbering mess—even though I never truly let her in on what caused my broken heart.
“Yeah,” I said, taking in a breath. “I’m actuallyreallyokay. As pissed as I was that night, I feel like it all happened for a reason. I know that’s so cliche to say, but I just wasn’t supposed to be with him, you know?”
Mackenzie took off her sunglasses, braving the sunny November daylight with bare eyes, and studied me carefully. “Wow, you really are okay, aren’t you?”
I chuckled. I knew not to be offended. Noah was an almost three-year relationship, after all. “Yeah, I am.”
Her look intensified as her eyebrows furrowed together in maximum-level scrutiny. “Spill it, Campbell.”
I met her gaze, mustering up some bravery. If there was a true time for girl talk, this was it. “Okay, but youhaveto keep this a secret,” I implored.
Mackenzie rolled her eyes. “Millie, come on.”
“I mean it, Mack.” I kept my face serious.
She threw up her hands. “Okay, okay, I promise. I won’t even tell Eric.”
I nodded my head in approval. “Okay. So . . . ,” I started, playing with the edges on the napkin in front of me. “I sort of slept with someone.”
