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She clicked her tongue. “Please. The guy is a Grade-A asshole. But you can’t deny he’s a hottie.”
I shrugged. “I’ve never really thought about it.”
I hadn’t. Because Nix eclipsed everyone else.
Always had.
Probably always would.
Only back then, I’d thought we stood a chance. That I’d stood a chance. Until I’d realized that everything we’d ever shared had been a lie.
I’d loved him. Desperately… hopelessly… irrevocably. He had been my friend, my protector, and I would have given him my heart if he’d have taken it.
I inhaled a shaky breath, closing the door on the old, painful, pointless thoughts.
We weren’t the same people anymore. I had to move on.
“Nix isn’t so bad either.”
“Will you stop?” I implored, despite the smile tugging at my mouth.
Nix wasn’t a hottie; he was the most beautiful guy I’d ever laid eyes on. All that dark hair and those piercing gunmetal gray eyes. The muscles and tattoos. The fact he towered over me and made me feel safe and protected. That hadn’t changed. Not even when he was spewing cruel hateful things at me.
The face of an angel, the voice of the devil.
Pain rolled through me. An unrelenting wave that threatened to pull me under. To swallow me whole. But a warm hand wrapped around mine, squeezing hard. “I’m sorry,” Celeste whispered, a buoy in angry, angry seas.
My eyes flickered open, focusing on her. Her soft smile. The sympathy glittering in hers.
“I’m sorry for all of it.”
The sun was good for my soul. I basked in it, letting the warm rays heat my skin, filling some of the icy cold cracks inside me.
I wasn’t brave enough to lie in a swimsuit like Celeste—not even in the privacy of my father and Sabrina’s yard—but I had agreed to wear a bikini top and some black cotton shorts, shoving a fluffy hair scrunchie over my wrist.
“Are you sure you won’t come in?” she called from the pool, flicking some water in my general direction. A couple of drops landed on my foot, and I rolled my eyes.
“Do you ever stop?”
“But it’s so refreshing.”
With a murmur, I got up and moved to the edge of the pool, dipping my toes in.
“It’s just the perfect temperature,” Celeste added with a reassuring smile.
I carefully sat down, letting my legs dangle into the water. “Happy?”
“It’ll do, I suppose.” She shrugged. “It’s a shame Miles had to babysit.”
“I’m sure he’ll be disappointed he missed you in your bikini,” I teased, earning me another splash. This time the water soaked me through, making me shriek.
“What’s going on?” Max wandered toward us with a group of his friends.
My precarious good mood instantly died.
“I thought you were out all day?” Celeste asked.
“We decided to come back here and hang out.”
