Page 113 of Come Break My Heart Again

“Talking about it won’t change anything,” I tell her.

Just like I can’t go back in time and tell my mom to stop smoking. Who knows if that’s what caused her cancer, but it sure didn’t help.

Reese gets the hint, shifting into a cross-legged position. “So, you dating anyone?”

I cough on the sip of beer I was swallowing. “What?”

“You’ve got some time to make up for,” she reminds me.

“No. I’m not dating anyone. I think the criminal record is kinda a turnoff.”

“Not as repellant as thesingle momstory. Girls love a bad boy. Worked on Elle Clarke.”

My grip on the bottle tightens. “You ever see her?” I ask casually.

At least, I hope it’s casual.

Elle still hasn’t mentioned the visits to my mom, and it’s bothered me more each time we’ve talked. She didn’t even bring it up when she called and yelled at me last weekend. And untilshe mentions it, I can’t ask herwhy. It’s the mystery that I mull over when I lie in bed after waking up from the nightmare of being in prison.

“Elle Clarke?” Reese’s eyebrows fly upward with surprise.

I nod. “Yeah.”

She must come back to Fernwood for more than her visits to my mom. Her parents still live here. Keira’s restaurant is downtown. Rose’s grave is in the local cemetery.

“Uh, no,” Reese answers. “Not since that fall you left.”

My forehead furrows. “Thatfall?”

“Yeah. She transferred to some private boarding school in Connecticut.”

“Shedid?”

I’m totally taken aback. I had no idea Elle didn’t graduate from Fernwood High.

“Yeah.” Reese is looking at me strangely.

I’m failing at casual, but I don’t really care.

“Why?”

She shrugs. “I wasn’t friends with her. But if I had to guess, I’d say it had to do with the suspension.”

I sit up straight. “What suspension?”

Reese laughs once. “You seriously don’t know?”

“I was arrested and shipped off to prison, remember?”

“Yeah, fair point. But I figured Tuck would have told you.”

Tuck wouldn’t have told me. I made it damn clear to him that Elle was a subject I wasn’t willing to discuss.

Reese sighs. “What does it matter now anyway? This was all years ago.”

Another sigh as I continue to stare at her expectantly.

“She went ballistic on Archer Hathaway in the hallway the day you got arrested. Most of the school saw it. She was screaming. Shouting. Swearing. She even slapped him. Honestly, I’d had no idea Little Miss Perfect had it in her. Rumorwas, she got a three-day suspension, but she never came back to school. Not sure what she thought Archer had to do with your arrest, but she was pissed at him about something. Guess I was wrong back then. You did mean something to her.”

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