Page 88 of Falling Too Late

Again. It happened again. How cruel could the universe be to me? Give me everything I ever wanted, get me so close to the sun before the waves took me under again.

I finally focused on Jon’s face. His brow was furrowed, and I could see the cogs turning.

“You didn’t move in because of the fire, did you?”

I shook my head. “I ran away.”

“Because. . .this happened before?”

“For five years.”

I could see the moment the words hit Jon. His body seemed to cave in on itself as he settled to the ground.

“Wren. . .”

“Don’t.” I could see the pity on his face clear as day. “Don’t focus on that, you focus on Alex. You get him back for me because I can’t. . .” The words were right there. The ones that evaded me so much as a child. I could feel the canal’s current drag me under again, and this time, I didn’t want to kick. I didn’t want to swim.

I can’t go on without him.

“I’ll do everything I can, Wren.”

“Wren!” Melissa’s excited voice pulled me from the memory. I looked up at her, dazed, but she didn’t seem to notice. “What a nice surprise!”

I glanced around, realizing I had been standing in the foyer before going back to the lawyers’ offices.

“Hey, Mel.” I smiled at her.

Melissa was Jon’s paralegal. Melissa and I met at one of Jon’s parties. She had been new to the firm and was standing in a corner sipping on something. I’d taken pity on her, as I always hated new spaces and feeling awkward, so I started up a conversation that never seemed to stop. Afterwards, she had found me at every function and glued herself to me. Melissa liked to talk a lot.She’s a pretty blonde with blue eyes and long legs. Men stared at her everywhere she went, and she loved to be the center of attention.

I was pretty sure they had slept together for a stint. I suspected she wanted more, but Jon didn’t keep steady girlfriends. At least none that I knew about.

Because he’s waiting for you.

The thought took me off guard, but I couldn’t think about it too much before Melissa spoke.

“It’s great that you came to visit, but,” she made a face, “he’s in a bad mood today.” She was standing behind her desk, looking down the hall at his corner office.

“What’s wrong?” I had rarely ever seen Jon in a bad mood. He was always cool and composed when we were teens.

“No clue. Something about someone not answering his phone calls. I tried getting him to tell me who it was, and I would work on it, you know, ’cause that’s basically my job,” she rolled her eyes, “but he’s adamant that he needs to be the one to make this call. I don’t know. Maybe seeing you will get him to pull out that stick he’s had up his ass all day.”

I laughed. Melissa had no filter, and it was one of the things that was refreshing about her.

“I’ll see what I can do.” I smiled and headed down the hall. Each office was lined with glass. I pulled open Jon’s door and watched his thumbs hit the screen of his phone hard.

“Whatever it is, Melissa, it can wait,” he growled out.

“Are you sure?” I teased.

His head shot up and his ice blue eyes were on me. When we were in high school, it had been hard to look him in the eyes. They were so much like Kevin’s that I couldn’t not think of him.

Now I could see the dark blue ring that was around his irises and the fleck of green that was only in his left eye.

“Wren, what a nice surprise.” He leaned back in his chair, and I stepped into the room and took a seat in one of his brown leather chairs across from the desk.

“Just thought I would pop by and say hi while I was in town.”

He chuckled, coming around his desk to lean against it. “I love that you’re here, but in all these years this might be the first time you’ve come by without notice.” He put his hands up. “I’m not mad, I actually love that you are here, but something tells me that there’s more to this than what you are letting on.” He gripped the edge of the desk.

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