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Ah, she’s so precious. Tears leaked down my cheeks once more as I nodded. “Yes, honey, I’m sure he would like that very much.”
* * *
The next day,a bouquet arrived. Over a dozen roses, picked and plucked to perfection, sat on my doorstep. I frowned, confused, as I stared at it before picking it up and looking for a card. There was an unsigned one on the back that simply read,I’m sorry, but…
I figured out who it was from pretty easily, but I was confused by the card. What was he apologizing for exactly? Also, ‘but’ what? Last I remembered, he’d walked out of here pretty pissed that I refused to accept his feelings. Why the sudden apology now? Was this another manipulation tactic?
I couldn’t tell, but I brought the flowers in anyway and soaked them in water. Around noon, my doorbell rang once more, interrupting my work. By the time I got there, there was another package waiting for me at the door. I picked it up and opened it to find a delicate necklace inside with a red pendant. I stared at it for a few seconds, wondering what exactly it was supposed to signify. There was a note attached to this one, too, so I read it, and it said, …you should probably let me in later to figure out the rest.
Clever bastard. He just knew how to use my curiosity against me.
Nick came over later that afternoon. I already knew who was ringing my doorbell, and I opened the door to find him standing there on my doorstep with a hesitant expression on his face. There was something different about his aura. Sure, he had the same self-assured unflappable stance and the same look in his eyes that said he didn’t give a damn what anybody else had to say. But there was something softer in his gaze, even while his body remained tense.
“Hey,” he greeted. “Can I come in?”
I nodded and took a step back. With a small smile, he took a few steps forward and closed the door behind him.
“Just let me explain everything,” he said. “I know you don’t believe I love you, and I don’t blame you. I guess you could say I’ve had deep attachment issues for a long time. But I think I want to explain why that is.”
From the stiff way he stood, I knew this was a difficult decision for him. I got the feeling I was standing on the cusp of finding out something heartbreaking, so I steeled myself and nodded.
“I was a kid when it happened,” he said. “As I mentioned before, my parents weren’t the most stable people, and they argued a lot. This time, it was while my dad was on the highway.” He rubbed the back of his neck, discomfort showing in every line of his body. “I don’t remember exactly what happened. One moment, they were going at it. And the next moment, the car was flying through the air and crashing. It happened too fast for me to tell what exactly happened. I woke up a few days later in a hospital bed, and they…didn’t. I was told they were already gone before the ambulance got there.”
“Oh my god.” The words were breathed out of me despite how hard I was trying to stay silent.
He smiled wryly. “Yeah. They weren’t parents of the year or anything, but…it was just…they were there one day and gone the next. Just like that. That fucked with me for the longest time.”
I could feel my heart weeping for him, but I tried not to let him see my pity. I knew he wouldn’t appreciate it, and it would make it harder for him. But god, he was just a kid when it happened. At least I had my mother, despite all her faults, and I never knew my father. But he’d lost everything in one night.
“None of my relatives wanted to take me, especially since I was an older kid, traumatized and angry. But Ingrid did. She was my dad’s older sister, and they’d been estranged up to that point. I give her a lot of credit for putting up with my shenanigans because I could not have been easy to deal with. But eventually, I calmed down.” He rubbed his hair. “Still, I don’t think I’ve ever opened myself up again to losing people. Not even with Kim and not with any of the other girls I dated. In fact, I think I subconsciously picked girls like Kim because I knew I would never fall for them. They were shallow and vapid. Comfortable. But you…” He shook his head. “You scared the shit out of me. Because I knew I could fall for you very easily.”
Intensity made his eyes glow when he looked at me, but I was too scared to believe it just yet.
“I know you probably don’t trust my words,” he added. “Not yet, anyway. So I’ll wait until you do while I continue to prove to you that I’m the man you need to be with.”
“Nick—”
“Don’t tell me not to,” he said. “I want to wait. At least give me that.”
I took a deep breath, the emotions biting and riotous inside me.
“How did you know I liked red gems?” I asked. That was a very specific thing to guess.
He smiled. “Back in high school, you wore that red crochet bracelet all the time until it was just about ripping at the seams. And then, at the party, you showed up wearing a red bracelet. Carson mentioned he’d bought it for you.”
I blinked at him in surprise. I didn’t think he’d observed me that much, much less remembered any of it.
He took another step toward me and said, “I know you think I don’t see you, that I don’t know you, but I do.” His eyes glowed with intensity. “I know you, Lisa Moon. And you’rerealto me.”
The words reverberated in my brain, remaining there for the rest of the day and night. I pondered on them even the next day when I went to visit my mother. It was what made me distracted on the walk to her trailer, distracted enough not to see the attack coming.
And by the time I knew what was happening, there was a hand around my mouth and a knife at my neck.
TWENTY-FOUR
NICK
The next day began with a bad feeling in my gut.
