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“I feel bad about it. Imagine when I go back and the news of where I was gets out. She’ll feel so foolish,” he whispered to me, his eyes sparkling as he returned to his pancakes.
I laughed, but then the words hit me. He was going back. He would be going back, and I’d be staying put. He seemed to stiffen, too, at the words. I wondered if it was for the same reason. As if reading my mind, he spoke up.
“I know I can’t disappear forever. I just, well, I love it here. It’s been the best few of weeks of my life. I love it here with you.”
A few extra words and I love you. I blushed. But I looked into those magnetic eyes. “I love you being here, too.” The words were out, the confession made.
He smiled, and now it was his turn to blush. He looked down at his bacon, a soft grin on his face. “Well, what a predicament this is, huh?”
And I nodded. Because it was slowly becoming quite a complication, whether we liked it or not. The day was coming that Leo would have to go back to his life and me to whatever life I scrounged together. What then? Would we just be a summer song he played for a while? Would I be just some American girl blip on his radar? How could I be anything more? How could it work?
I turned away from the table, glancing out into the restaurant trying to let it go, trying to tell myself to just focus on the moment. To just enjoy the time we had left together. And then it all got even messier.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“I can’t believe this,” I whispered, shrinking down in my seat even though it was pointless; the diner was barely the size of my parents’ living room. There was no avoiding him. And worst of all, she was with him.
“Tillie?” he asked, walking to the table. There was no escape.
“Tillie, hi,” Scarlet said, making nervous eye contact with me and then quickly averting her eyes. She started picking at her nails. Of course she should be nervous after running off with her best friend and roommate’s boyfriend.
“What are you doing here?” I asked. I didn’t expect I’d ever see her again, and I didn’t want to.
“We’re visiting my family. I tried to call you and tell you, to see if you wanted to talk while I was here,” Scarlet said. I looked to Brad, who just stood with his hands in his pockets as if he were an accessory and not the man who broke my heart, who used to share my home and business with me.
All those missed calls. I’d missed the warning. It wouldn’t have helped, anyway.
“There is no talking about things, Scarlet. Not after what you did. I never want to hear another word from you.” I bit into the words and spat them at her, venom coursing through my blood.
She shifted her weight and exhaled, running a hand through her long curls. “I know, I know. I’m sorry. I just...I hate what happened with us.”
I looked from her to Brad. She couldn’t hate it that much if she was still with him. I became aware that the entire diner had paused and was staring at us, our tense interaction growing in volume. There wasn’t a single fork clink or a sound. Everyone’s attention was locked on us. I suddenly didn’t want to be at the center of all that attention. I had nothing left to say.
“I see. Well, have a good visit,” I said, reaching for my crutches and standing. Brad turned to eye my foot, tilting his head. I said nothing. He didn’t get to know anything about me anymore.
“Tillie, there’s something else you should know,” Scarlet said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. She looked around, perhaps also noticing the frozen quality of the diner. I caught an older woman out of the corner of my eye slowly chewing her hashbrown but staring at us like we were one of the soap operas on television.
