She squeezed me tighter. “Sophia, you’ve got it all wrong if you think I came back to this island because of anyone or anything other than your father. I missed the island. I missed Kat and Eric. But I couldn’t live without Danny anymore.He’smy home, Sophia. And if Leo is your home too, then you’ll never resent him for choosing to be where he is.”
My shoulders shook as I sobbed. “I really fucked up, Kennedy,” I said.
She pulled back to look at me and gripped my shoulders. “It’snevertoo late to go home. Don’t wait years to fix this. I was too ashamed that I left your father to come back and face him and every single day, the pain got worse, not better. If Leo is the one for you, you won’t feel better with time. At best, you’ll become numb. Believe me, that is no way to live when you could have real, crushing, soul-deep love instead.”
“What about all of you? What about Izzy?”
“We’ll always be here, Soph.Always. And we will miss you. But not a single one of us wants you to give up the love we’ve found just to have you around more often. You need to go to Boston, and they’re all just too chickenshit to be the ones to tell you that.”
She looked over my shoulder and I turned around to see everyone hovering nearby. Mom and Elena were crying, Dave and Dad looked sad and empathetic. Uncle Eric held Aunt Kat and nodded at me when he saw me, while she offered me a sad smile. Even the twins stood there, watching me with a curious expression.
“I’m sorry,” I said to them. “But she’s right.”
“We know, honey,” Mom said, stepping forward to hug me. They all swarmed for hugs and reassurances.
“If you really miss us, you can just get on that fancy private jet of his and come visit,” Kennedy said, earning sad laughs from everyone.
I hugged each of them before we settled around the fire, the boys staying up far past their bedtime, cuddled in with Elena and me on one couch while each of the couples took another couch. I looked around the fire at my family as we laughed and told stories, and as much as it broke my heart to leave them here, I knew where I belonged. Tomorrow I’d get back on a plane and go home.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Leo
I was pretty sureI understood how people died of a broken heart. I didn’t feel capable of breathing and the fist around my heart made me think it could just stop completely at any moment. I’d spent the last two weeks sitting in my parents’ condo, drinking, playing video games, and generally being a miserable ass. Jace had tried to get me to go out with him, Aunt Sloane and Aunt Lavi had tried to cheer me up, Dad kept trying to give me space, and Mom was circling me like a vulture, cleaning up my beer bottles like she wanted to say something but was biding her time.
I’d read the two books Sophia’s father had written just to feel close to her, and all that had done was made me yearn for her even more. After reading their family story told through his eyes, I only wanted to fly after her and never let her go.
The Bruins were trying to get me to do a few promotional events before training camp started. Lucky for me the events weren’t in mycontract, and I told my agent to leave me alone unless it was a contractual obligation. It probably wouldn’t win me any friends, but I doubted they wanted a clearly hungover rookie representing the team right now, and I was pretty much always hungover—or drunk.
“No!” Aunt Sloane yelled, marching into my room. She yanked the plug on my Bluetooth speaker and chucked it into the hallway. “I’m not listening to this shit for another minute,” she said.
I’d been listening to“End of the Road” by Boys II Men for the hundredth time. She’d been complaining about it for days. She’d tolerated the Måneskin binge for the first week—and had even marveled at how perfectly “Timezone” fit my situation—but apparently, this was her breaking point.
I sighed and turned my head to face her. Rolling my entire body would take more energy than I had and the pounding in my head made movement nauseating.
“I get that you’re depressed as shit, so I’ve tolerated the endless litany of whiney pop songs about broken hearts. But no more. Every time I come over here,Iget a little depressed. Do you know how hard that is for someone as sunshiny as me?” she yelled.
I groaned and threw a pillow at her. “Get out.”
I heard Aunt Lavi laugh from the other room and Mom appeared in my doorway behind Aunt Sloane.
“How much longer are you going to mope around here?” Aunt Sloane asked.
“Forever.” I glared at her. “Get out.”
“Nope.” She sat down on the bed.
“Aunt Sloane, just leave me alone.”
“I will not,” she said. “Get off your ass and go to Hawaii and tell that girl how much you love her.”
“She knows I love her,” I said.
“Then tell her you want her to move here.”
“No.”
“Adrian!” she yelled “You need to talk some sense into your idiot of a son because Icannotlisten to this music anymore.” She looked at my mother, still standing in the doorway with a frown on her face. Mom had tried everything to help me and had basically started treating me like I was sick. Which worked for me because I was obviously dying, and the comforting Mom-vibe was nice no matter how old I was.
