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Milo glanced between him and Frankie, then past Gavin before realization dawned on his face. “Oh shit, is this the Nia from your summers on Tybee?”
Fuck, I forgot that I told them. He nodded, remembering the vague conversations he had with his best friends about the girl that had him twisted up all those years ago. Gavin forced air in and out of his lungs, like that was going to calm him down. It never had in the past, it wouldn’t now.
Distantly, he heard Milo say, “Nia is the girl that broke his heart a few years ago.”
“Twelve years, to be precise,” he mumbled, rubbing his chest with a closed fist. He refused to look at her again, but he also refused to leave this Christmas party just because the only heartbreak he’d ever endured was in the same room.
“All right, come on,” Milo said, wrapping an arm around him as he tugged him back towards the front door. “Let’s step out for a bit and get some air.”
He nodded and followed his friend out of the apartment, not really caring where they went, as long as it was far away enough for him to breathe normally. When he walked away that summer, after catching her in the cave with someone else, Gavin truly believed he would never see her again. He’d spent the last twelve years not thinking about her, he’d forced her out of his mind and practically erased her from his thoughts.
Not only was she infiltrating his memories, she knew his friends and was going to be back in his life. It was going to be all kinds of unpleasant.
* * *
Nia fucking Thomas.
The words had been playing on a loop in Gavin’s mind since Frankie and Milo’s Christmas party. He knew that she went byGinnynow, but there was a block in his brain and it didn’t allow him to think of her that way.
Ginny was a stranger.
Nia was…or at least he’d believed she was the love of his life.
Nope, she broke your heart. Let her go.
Gavin repeated that to himself instead, as he helped his mother clean the house in preparation of the Rhodes family Christmas dinner. Which should have been easy, since all he had to do was vacuum every room and not get in his mother’s way. But he was so fucking distracted.Shefiltered into every quiet moment in his mind and Gavin hated it. Worse, there were pictures from the Thomas-Rhodes summers in random places all over his parents’ house. So when he was least expecting it, pictures of them as teenagers would suddenly appear in his line of sight. She was everywhere, no matter how hard he tried to ignore her.
On the rooftop with Milo and Jackson—who joined them a few minutes after Gavin was pulled out of the apartment—he’d told them all of the other details of the last time he’d seen her. They knew just the basics until that point: he had been in love with her, he lost his virginity to her, she was beautiful. But that evening, he’d given them more. So they fully understood why seeing her again was more than he bargained for.
When they returned to the apartment, Gavin had pointedly ignoredherwhile he interacted with everyone else. Only when they sat down to dinner did their eyes meet and he could see confusion, and a little irritation, flash in her eyes. Had she been anyone else, at a party where he was one of the few single people, Gavin would have flirted up a storm. But she was such a big part of his past and there was absolutely no escaping that.
She’d looked annoyingly beautiful too. A sleeveless red dress hugged every curve until it swayed around her calves, and she’d let her dark hair fall in waves to her shoulders with light makeup and heels that made her look taller. The best part? The tattoo that wrapped around her biceps and covered the top of her shoulders.
Now, two whole days later, thoughts of her still lingered. And Gavin cursed his mind for holding on desperately.
“Honey, you’ll wear out that edge of the carpet if you don’t move the vacuum around some more.”
His mother’s voice broke through his thoughts and Gavin blinked, tearing his eyes away from the vacuum. When his looked at Juniper Rose Rhodes, she offered him a kind but concerned smile.
“What’s wrong, Gavin?” He shook his head, turning off the vacuum so he could move out of the living room. “I’ll keep asking ’til you tell me.”
Gavin laughed, glancing at his mother as he walked through the kitchen into the utility room. “Just a lot on my mind.”
“Is it the shelter or the clinic? Did something happen that your father isn’t telling me?”
“What, no.” He frowned and stashed the vacuum in the cupboard. “I don’t think dad knows how to keep a secret.”
“Then what’s going on?”
“Nothing. I’m just preoccupied.”
His mother gasped, hands flying to her mouth as her eyes widened gleefully. “Oh, it’s agirl.”
“Jesus.” Gavin rolled his eyes as the back door opened. His eldest brother, Noah, walked into the kitchen, dusting off his boots as his mother rushed over in excitement.
“Noah, I think my baby has finally found someone to love.”
Looking between them, Noah frowned. “I’m still very single, Ma.” Juniper smacked him playfully across the chest and Noah smiled before glancing at Gavin. “You found love? I thought you’d sworn that shit off.”
