15. MATTHEWS

MATTHEWS

H illy’s was massive.

When Ella described the building, I was expecting a small diner. The two-story brick building that climbed into the soft, cloudy sky of Rhode Island was not a tiny neighborhood diner.

A flashing deep blue neon sign hung over the massive set of double doors and flickered Hilly’s at me as I slipped from the rental car and huddled into my sweater. It had started to get colder in the evenings than I was used to from Texas weather, and a chill had settled against my bones.

I slipped into a pair of jeans and a tight black tank top that ruched at the sides of my belly and pushed up my chest. The sweater was simply there to keep me warm until I was safely inside. I pulled the door open to a different world. Long brick walls were adorned with sports memorabilia, most of it highlighting the athletes of Harbor University. It was a shrine.

What was behind the bar to my left brought a smile to my face. A life-size cutout of Coach Cody stood propped against the wall. He was in good shape for an old man, and when the girl behind the counter caught me inspecting it, she raised an eyebrow in my direction.

“Do you want a picture with it?” Cael’s honey-like voice rolled down my neck as he came up behind me. “We could ask him to recreate it for you, get the real thing if that’s what you’re into.” I spun on him and pushed him away from me with one finger. “I’ve never been one for fucking dads.”

He was wearing a tight white tank top and a short-sleeve button-down that glowed orange in the bar's black light. Rings decorated his hands, which clinked together as he scratched his eyebrow and stared at me.

Cael’s Cheshire cat smile grew. “What about their sons?”

“Been there, done that.” I clicked my teeth and slipped from my sweater as his icy blue eyes narrowed in on me. They raked down my chest and over the curves of my hips. “Eyes up here, Loverboy,” I said, and his gaze snapped to mine.

“I like that,” he purred.

“I’m not flirting with you.”

“Are you sure?” Cael cocked his head to the side, and the light bounced around in his blue eyes. “Feels like flirting.”

“One apology doesn’t undo a past as tangled as ours, Cael. You can’t just—” I stopped. “Words don’t mean anything.”

You promised me so much.

You never sent a single letter.

“Clementine,” he sighed.

You promised.

“Mary.”

A frustrated huff left him. “I’m not good at apologizing.” Cael’s shoulders rolled back tightly and stuck his knuckle between his teeth as he thought. “And given your stance on words…”

He stepped forward, inching closer and suffocating what air I had left to breathe. His hand dropped and flexed at his side. I could tell that all he wanted to do was touch me. It took everything in my body, every tense, scared muscle, not to let him.

“Let me show you how sorry I am?” He asked and ghosted his lips over mine.

“Where is Ella?”

“Upstairs.” He whispered.

I left him standing there, turning toward the stairs and ignoring how his body leaned into mine, begging quietly for more. Every inch of me wanted it, needed it, every inch except the unsteady beating of my heart that warned me not to get close.

Everything at Harbor was temporary.

In four weeks, I would be home.

I would have to deal with Julien. With my job.

If I let Cael Cody wrestle his way back into my life, then history would surely repeat itself.

“Mary!” Ella popped up from behind a table with a banner in her hands. “Help me with this?”

Grabbing the other end we hung the happy birthday banner against the wall with a few pieces of tape and stood back to admire our handy work.

“I’m glad you came,” she said with a smile. “Zoey!”

A petite brunette appeared from the stairs with a box in her arms. Struggling to carry it, she grunted and slid it against the floor, kicking it the rest of the way to us.

“Zoey Novak, this is Mary, the journalist interviewing the guys.”

“It’s nice to put a face to the name. Van said he’s never had so much fun in an interview.” She shrugged, not an ounce of venom in the girl. Zoey smiled, and it lit up the room, her big brown eyes full of life even in the dim lighting.

“Van is an incredible liar,” I laughed. “It went well though. He’s very…”

His interview had been a shit-show. He was sweet enough but getting him to focus on the topics at hand was torture. His mind wandered like a rubber ball bouncing trapped in a tiny room. It was hard to believe that he would be a fully licensed therapist in one more year. But maybe that was the point. He was welcoming and bright; even I had a hard time not telling him every single one of my problems.

“Polite?” I finished.

Both Ella and Zoey burst into laughter.

“So he ran you in circles, and you ended up talking about his comic book collection?” Zoey tilted her head.

“Weirdly accurate.”

“I’m pretty sure Van talked Zoey in circles until she agreed to date him.”

“Homecoming, freshman year.”

“You two have been together that long?” I asked, almost in shock.

“Van Mitchell with braces, bad look.” Zoey laughed. My mind couldn’t help but wander to Cael with braces, his stupid, sharp grin covered in metal. He had worn them for two years and wore them like they were cool. Every kind in our grade wanted them by the time he got his off. It was the Cael Cody effect.

“The buzz cut was worse.” Ella rolled her eyes, and Zoey agreed.

“You’ll be going to law school next year?” I asked her. Van had mentioned briefly that she was studying.

“Yeah.” The mood dropped in the room.

“Are you being depressing up here, Sour Patch?” Cael yelled from the top of the stairs with a tray of shots in his hands. “I strictly remember saying that no one was allowed to be whiny today!”

“Says the king of complaints!” Zoey laughed. “No, we're just getting to know Mary.”

Cael flinched. I had never seen a man hate a name so much.

It only fueled my need to hear people say it around him.

“Shots for the pretty women.” He lifted the tray dramatically in the air.

“You could at least wait until the party starts, Misery,” Ella scolded with a smile as she took a shot. I looked at him, and he wiggled the tray at me.

“Because I’m not drinking, by proxy, I need the three of you as drunk as possible tonight,” he cooed. “I want you so loaded I can get drunk off your sweat.”

His eyes flickered to me.

“Ew.” Zoey rolled her eyes and took a shot.

Ella took her shot, smelling it with a dirty look on her face. Cael smirked at her and shrugged his shoulders as she shook her head. He turned to me and shifted his feet so I could reach it, but I didn’t take one.

“I don’t bite, Mary, ” he said, showing off his pretty white teeth.

“Don’t believe him.” Zoey shook her head. “He bites.”

I smiled and the air shifted in the room again. I shrugged and wrapped my fingers around the shot glass, not caring what either Zoey or Ella thought.

The three of us took back the shots, and I was naive enough to think they would slow down.