Page 332 of Safe With You

There was another pause.

Then, softer, “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“And don’t let this mess up your night.”

“It won’t.”

“I’m serious.”

“I know.”

“I raised you better than to let some man who couldn’t act right five years ago ruin a perfectly good Tuesday.”

I laughed.

“There she is.”

“I’m just saying.”

“I know.”

We talked for another minute before hanging up, and the store went completely quiet.

I stood beside the table with my phone still in my hand.

Lucas asked about me.

I waited for that sentence to become something bigger.

It didn’t.

Then another thought came.

Because I want to see you.

Ellis.

Sunday night. No reason attached to it, no explanation for why I needed to come over.

He wanted me there, so he asked.

And I went.

I looked down at my phone.

For years, I thought the hardest part of leaving Lucas was accepting that he hadn’t chosen me the way I kept choosing him.

Maybe I was wrong.

Because even now, after Ellis had done nothing but show me otherwise, I could wake up to an empty bed and decide he was gone before I ever left the room.

I closed my eyes as the answer settled in.

It wasn’t Lucas. Not really.

It was what he left behind.