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On a scale of bad to terrible, me breaking up with Ellie to pursue Sutton would register off the charts. It would also force Sutton to choose between me and her newly blended family.
So, I keep hoping my feelings will disappear if I continue fighting them.
I’m losing the battle. Both with that and looking back at her.
I wave a white flag and glance into the rearview mirror. Sutton’s knees are up, propped against the back of Ellie’s seat. Her forehead is resting against the glass window, her gaze focused out on something I can’t see. She looks like she’d rather be anywhere but here, in my car, with me.
“You sure you don’t want one, Sutton?” Ellie asks, pulling another apple turnover out of the bag.
“Yeah, I’m sure,” she answers.
Ellie looks to me. “Sutton is sulking.”
“Did something happen?” Concern ripples through my voice, and Ellie gives me a weird look that tells me she caught it.
“She and Ricky broke up,” Ellie supplies, breaking off a piece of turnover and popping the pastry into her mouth.
“Ellie,” Sutton hisses.
“What? It’s not a secret. I heard you telling your friend Maude that you don’t care it’s over.”
Sutton sighs. She also seems to be studiously avoiding eye contact with me. “I don’t. I need to figure out who I am, on my own. But you can’t just go blabbing about my business to anyone who—”
“Geesh, sorry. Teddy won’t tell anyone. He hates gossip. Right, babe?” Ellie smiles over at me.
Hearing who hooked up in the third-floor supply closet or who is taking who to homecoming is usually of zero interest to me.
Knowing Sutton Everett is single?
I won’t tell anyone, but hell if I’mindifferentto the news. For the entire length of time we’ve known each other, Sutton and I have both been in relationships. I didn’t get the impression hers was all that serious, based on the fact that she barely mentioned the guy and he hadn’t visited once since she moved here, but she was off-limits.
It was still a barrier between us. A barrier that prevented me from having to see her with another guy—one whodoescome up and come around.
I’m not sure where the misguided possessiveness started. The first time I saw her, maybe? Staring at the cereal aisle like it had personally wronged her, looking like a fantasy I never knew I had. I’ve done everything I can think of to block her out, andnothinghas worked.
She lives with my girlfriend, right next door. Goes to the same school, where we have Calculus together. Resides in the same small town, a place where it’s more uncommonnotto know someone.
I can’t avoid her even if I really wanted to.
And now, she’s single.
Fuck.
“Teddy?”
“Huh?”
Ellie raises both eyebrows, still waiting for a response from me. “You won’t tell anyone, right?”
“No, of course not.” I glance in the rearview mirror again.
Sutton is looking at me this time, wearing an unreadable expression that masks whatever she’s thinking.
“Want me to play some breakup anthems? A little ‘I Will Survive’? Or maybe some ‘Go Your Own Way?”
Sutton rolls her eyes. “Don’t you dare. The one thing you have going for you is your decent taste in music.”
A small thrill goes through me at her teasing tone.
