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“Yeah, I’m serious.”
“I cared about you Cruz, more than I ever cared about anyone. You were it for me. Then you left me likeyoudidn’t give a shit aboutme.”
A single tear rolls down her cheek, and I reach out to catch it, but she swipes my hand away and starts for the door.
“Ellery, wait.”
We have to stop doing this. Every time we see each other it can’t end this way. And we will. It was inevitable. Our parents were married and I was in denial thinking I would never have to see or talk to her again.
“We can’t keep running away from each other.” I turn around and find her stopped at the door, back to me. “We have to figure out a way to—”
“Coexist,” she finishes the thought and turns around slowly.
I look down at my hand and nod, rubbing my palm with my thumb. “We have to. For our parents, and us.”
“You’re right,” she says simply.
Surprised to hear her agree, I look up and see her workingher bottom lip. “I am?”
She makes her way over to the bed and sits down gingerly, letting out a heavy sigh. “It’s no secret our parents have gone out of their way to keep us from being in the same room the past few years. But they’re not going to do it anymore.”
I make my way over to the bed and sit down next to her. “What makes you say that?”
She turns to me and drops her hands into her lap. “When I first learned you would be here for the summer, I asked Momma why she didn’t tell me, and she more or less said it was because they weren’t going to run interference anymore.”
My eyes widen and brows shoot up to my hairline. “She said that?”
Ellery nods. “She said now that we were both adults it was up to us to decide if we wanted to be in this family. Separate vacations and holidays, they’re not going to do it anymore. And she said your dad was planning to tell you the same thing, but I take it he didn’t.”
“No.” I blow out a tense breath and shake my head. “He just made it sound like you would be busy this summer when I asked him why he didn’t tell me you would be here.”
I turn my attention to the painting hanging on the wall next to the dresser. It once kept the secret of Ellery and me. Now I’m looking at it like it has the answer to our problem.
“So, what do we do?” she asks numbly.
“I don’t know,” I admit. “I guess, we try to let go of what happened between us and find our way to some kind of middle ground.”
“Like, be friends?” she asks, with a hint of disbelief.
I turn to her and give her a soft smile. We both know that’s asking a lot, given everything that happened between us.
“We become what we should have always been,” I reply with a shrug. “Two kids whose parents got married. We shareholidays, act like family, and let our parents live happily ever after.”
Ellery is quiet for a moment as she considers the idea. “And what about our happily ever after?”
My eyes search hers, wanting nothing more than for Ellery to live among her silver lining. “As long as you get yours, that will be good enough for me.”
She smiles wistfully, and I know what she’s thinking. In another world we could have been each other’s forever. If only…
“Okay,” she says slowly.
“Really?” I can hear the surprise in my response and know she can, too.
“Sure,” she says lightly. “Our parents deserve to be happy. It can’t be that hard to be the adults they expect us to be.”
She’s right. We can do this. We’re both smart and capable. But how did we go from being enemies to lovers to friends? “So how do we do it?”
She chews the inside of her cheek, considering the question. “We stop attacking one another. No matter what the other is doing or saying or who they may be talking to, we let whatever feelings we’re having at that moment go.”
