Chapter 22
This time I won’t let her disappear on me again. I jump up and follow close behind as she hurries down the aisle before anyone else in this theater can leave. She turns the corner and pushes out the door into the lobby and I’m right behind her. “Ella, talk to me,” I say.
I’d stupidly thought that we would be okay since she let me hold her hand. But now she’s running away from me again.
“There’s no reason to talk,” she says, walking quickly to the doors.
We step outside into the warm summer air. The sky isn’t as bright as it was this morning. Dark storm clouds threaten in the distance and they’re only getting closer as the day goes on. It’s the remnants of the hurricane that are stretching out and finding us even though we’ve sought safety from the worst of it.
Ella walks to the edge of the parking lot, where the concrete turns into grass and there’s a large ditch that separates this shopping center from the one next to it.
She turns around, folds her arms across her chest, and stares at me. “Why are you following me?”
“Because I love you.” It might sound stupid right now but it’s the truth. And it’s the first thing I thought of. “Baby, I love you so much. Please stop running away from me.”
Her lips quiver but she remains strong, staring at me with all of her emotions masked. “How long has it been going on?” she asks.
“How long has what been going on?”
She glares at me. “Kennedy!”
“Oh,” I say, feeling like an idiot. “Baby, there is nothing going on. I swear. You just haven’t let me explain yet.”
She draws in a deep breath and lets it out quickly. “Ethan, you are such a liar. How the hell is sleeping with your ex considered nothing?”
“What?” I grab my neck. “I didn’t sleep with her!”
She rolls her eyes. “Okay, whatever. Maybe you didn’t have sex, but you shared a bed with her. You shared a hotel with her. You can’t possibly make me believe that nothing happened when you werein bed together.”
My heart hammers in my chest. I’m so glad she’s talking to me now, but I’m also confused as hell.
“Baby, we didn’t share a bed together. I mean, yeah, we did technically share a hotel but—”
She bursts into a sob at my confession and I try to hold her but she steps back. “Ella, it was nothing. I’ll explain.”
She shakes her head. “It’s true. You slept with her. And you wouldn’t have told me if she didn’t plaster it all over her stupid social media.”
My vision blurs and my heart stops. Social media. What the hell did Kennedy do?
“What did she put online?” I ask, even though part of me fears the answer.
Ella stares at me like I’m stupid. “You don’t know?”
I lift my arms up. “I had no idea. I don’t follow her online, I hate her!”
Ella’s brows pull together, like she’s studying me to see if I should be trusted. And because Ishouldbe trusted, I try to look as innocent as possible. “Baby, tell me what you know and I’ll tell you the truth of what happened. I’ll tell you all of it.”
She folds her arms across her chest again. “You go first.”
I tell her about how I’d been wandering around the Walmart parking lot trying to find her. I tell her how Kennedy suddenly appeared and was freaking out that she’d found me, someone she knew, because she was stranded and panicked.
“I couldn’t just leave her there. I mean, I wanted to but… she was literally stranded without a car and her parents aren’t even in the country.”
Ella’s hard expression softens. “Yeah, I mean, I get it. You were being nice.”
“Exactly,” I say, glad to have found some common ground with Ella. Now that I have her full attention, I want her to know all of the details. “I should have told you sooner, babe. I really wanted to but, I mean, it’s Kennedy. I knew you’d be pissed. Hell, I was pissed. I hate her so much and even in an emergency evacuation, she’s still the most annoying person on the planet. And then I swear I was about to tell you that she was with me when you called me, but you were telling me about how horrible the camp site was and how miserable you were and I just couldn’t stand the idea of telling you about Kennedy when you were already so depressed. So I waited, like an idiot, and I’m so sorry.”
A cool breeze blows away the warm air as the clouds continue to darken all around us. Ella stands firm, her gaze never leaving mine.
