Page 29 of When Stars Fall

“You can do anything you want on the island for five days.”

“Perfect.” His lips quirk up, but it’s not quite a smile. “What time should I come over tomorrow?”

“Anything but me.”

“Look, at the end of this week, if you want to write me off, I won’t stop you. I’ll pretend, at least in public, that you don’t exist.”

There’s a media circus swirling around us, and I’m ignoring it. The earthquake he set off will have aftershocks in my life long after this week. My manager and PR person are earning their money. Sealing up cracks and checking for leaks. My lawyer has his ear to the ground for any rumblings about Haven. We haven’t had this much scrutiny since I left Wyatt and dropped off the famous radar. When I returned to work, I took smaller projects, and I maintained a low profile. Ignoring #Wyllie again is going to take years—probably his plan when he booked Jackson’s show.

I open my mouth to deny him, and Wyatt holds up his hand.

“We can spend the time here at your house or wherever you want. Doesn’t have to be public. I won’t”—his jaw works and determination stretches across his face—“I won’t ever tell anyone what happens these next few days.” He swallows. “Even if it doesn’t work out. It’ll stay between you and me.”

I try to speak again, but he must realize he hasn’t won me over yet.

“You can work me in around anything else—other commitments, people, anything. Anything, Ellie. I’ll take five minutes on the balcony of my hotel room if that’s all you’ve got.”

Sounds so easy. He has no idea how high the stakes are. I’m slipping, inching closer to the person I was ten years ago.

“You don’t have to answer me right now.” Wyatt takes the dish towel off his shoulder and wrings it between his hands. “I’ll do anything to make it work.”

He tosses the towel on the island and thrusts his hands into his pockets. One of them is making a fist and then releasing something. He’s bothered. He leans against the counter, his palms pressing into the cool granite. He won’t keep pushing. This is my last chance to decide our path.

Wyatt is Haven’s father, and she wants to know him. I owe it to her to see whether he’s better now. If he can be trusted, then I have to let him in, at least for her sake. “Okay,” I say. “Okay.”

He nods his head. “Thanks, Ellie. I won’t let you down this time.”

Something in his tone causes a cascade of cracks across my heart. “I hope not,” I say. He won’t want to hurt me, but there’s no way to gauge whether he can keep that promise. “I’ll take you to your hotel.”

At Nikki’s house, I sit outside on my bike. Haven will be asleep since she was discharged earlier this morning when her fever broke. I’m the worst mother. No way to be sure whether giving Wyatt a chance is right or wrong. Once something happens to make me sure, it’ll be too late to shield Haven. Sighing, I use my key to open my sister’s door.

Nikki comes out of the kitchen with a glass of water. “Haven’s already sleeping. You staying here tonight?”

I nod and walk over to her couch, collapsing into it.

She takes in my appearance while she sips her water and then sits down in one of the armchairs. “Are you okay? How’d it go with Wyatt?”

I shake my head, unable to formulate a coherent sentence. “It’s dumb to even consider a second chance with him, right?”

Her sharp intake of breath is audible in the quiet room. “Wow. Already?” She sets her glass on the coffee table in front of her.

“I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know.” I gather my hair into a ponytail and let it fall, over and over. “It makes no sense. I don’t know him anymore. In typical Wyatt fashion, he has no idea how we’d make it work with our different lifestyles. No plan, none,” I say. “It’s been ten years.Ten years. How can anyone still be in love with someone when they haven’t shared a room in ten years?”

“I realized you still had feelings.” Nikki moves to sit beside me on the couch. “You organized your life to avoid him, so it was clear there was something to avoid. But I started viewing the distance as more for Haven’s sake than because you couldn’t handle seeing him.”

“If it makes you feel any better, I convinced myself it was because of Haven too.” Out of the corner of my eye, I see her thoughtful frown matches mine.

“He’s still the same charming guy he was before. But that’s not all he was before. Remember that.”

I close my eyes and press the heels of my hands into my forehead.

“There are very real reasons why he isn’t parenting Haven.”

Behind my eyes, a headache builds. “What if he’s clean?”

“What if he’s not? How do you know? You’ve spent ten years getting him out of your system, raising your daughter, trying to keep her away from his lifestyle, those risks. If you’re not certain, you’re undoing everything for nothing.”

“He seems different. More grounded, less Hollywood.”

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