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ME
We’re not estranged… just busy.
EVAN
Sure, let’s go with that. So, where did you bump into Izzy?
ME
She’s the new social media manager for the team.
Looks like I’ll be bumping into her a lot.
EVAN
Small world. Hey, I’m in London, so it’s 1 am here. I’m flying in next week. Wanna grab dinner? Catch up?
ME
For sure. TF are you doing in London?
EVAN
I’m a man of mystery, what can I say?
Apparently, both Rossi siblings enjoy a bit of mystery, too bad I’m not as amused.
CHAPTER 3
Isabella
Junior prom night seems like a lifetime ago now, but it’s only been seven years. A lot can change in that amount of time. Trust me. I learned that lesson the hard way. It’s all my fault, of course, I knew that Nathan and I would never last, but it had been fun to pretend, even for one night.
Nathan was my brother’s best friend since childhood. He was my first crush. A boy that I never thought would look twice at me, and he hadn’t, until the night of my junior prom—his senior prom.
I’d gone to the dance that night with a guy in my grade who I barely knew. I was just happy I’d been asked at all. I wasn’t exactly the social butterfly I am today. I would’ve said no to going at all, but Jules was going, and she was a Senior, so this was our last chance to go together.
My date turned out to be a complete disaster. Minutes after arriving at the dance, Mr. Wrong ditched me for his drunk friends, a surprise to no one, and I spent most of the night sitting at a table, being ignored while I played He loves me, he loves me not, with my pink carnation corsage. Julia tried to salvage things, but she also wanted to dance with her boyfriend, and I wasn’t going to ruin her special night just because my date was an idiot.
My date, let’s call him Brian (I truly don’t remember his name), didn’t even notice when Nathan scooped me up and said, “Come on. I’ll drive you home.” I never asked what happened to Nathan’s date. It didn’t occur to me to wonder, because the way he looked at me that night… I’d never felt so desired, so seen.
He’d just swooped in like a literal knight in shining rental tux and whisked me away in his F150. That was the prom night I’d always had in mind. Even now, I can still vividly remember it, still smell the alpine mist of the tree-shaped air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror. In spite of the years between me and that night, I can still taste his kisses. Still feel the brush of his fingers lingering on my skin.
I’m not sure what made me stop him just before the turn-off to my street. “Do you want to go somewhere? I’m just not ready to go home yet.” That bold Izzy had been hiding all my life, and she chose exactly the right moment to appear.
“Sure.” He drove right past my house and down the road to the little park by the lake. “Wanna go for a walk?” He asked.
I’d just nodded and watched him curiously, wondering what he was up to as he took my hand and walked me to the grass beneath a big oak tree. He stood closer than he normally would and peered down at me. Moonlight reflected in his dark eyes as he picked at the remnants of the corsage on my wrist, his brow slightly creased. “I was going to ask you to go with me to prom… but you’d already agreed to go with him.”
I was stunned silent for a full minute. “You—you were? Why would you do that?”
His hand abandoned the flower and came up to cup my cheek. He ran his calloused thumb along my bottom lip, his eyes transfixed on the movement. “I’ve wanted you for so long. I can’t even remember when it started.”
I should’ve known right then that this was all an elaborate ruse. Some pity-induced attempt to boost my self-esteem after being ditched on prom night. Nathan Sterling didn’t want me. He’d had an entire decade to make any feelings known, and he’d never said a single word. He and my brother, Evan, for the most part, acted as if I was invisible.
Not to mention the fact that Nathan had half the girls at school throwing themselves at his feet. No one who had the pick of the school could ever want me.
But, like any seventeen-year-old girl with a crush, I’d forgotten all that the moment Nathan looked at me with those deep soulful eyes. Maybe, I just let myself believe those words because deep down, I wanted to be wanted. I wanted the white picket fence and the fairy tale ending… and I wanted it with him. I always had. There was a stack of locked diaries stacked six feet high in my closet to prove it.
