Page 46 of When Stars Fall

He stands so close the heat radiating off his body warms me. I shouldn’t make eye contact. Avoid the charm.Keep your head down, Ellie.

When I glance up, his light eyes are filled with sincerity, not the desire or teasing I expected. Whatever he’s going to say next, he’ll mean it.

“You can be happy with me. I won’t be the one making you sad anymore.”

“My mom and I are having breakfast. I’m running a drama program in the afternoon for kids at a local high school.” He lights up. “You can’t come,” I say. “Teenagers and their phones. You’d be spread across the internet.”

“Kids love me.” Wyatt waggles his eyebrows. He must be able to sense I’m close to giving in.

“Most people seem to—color me surprised.” A short laugh escapes me.

“You wound me, Ellie.” He takes my hand and places it in the center of his chest.

My breath catches, and my heart kicks into gear. A simple touch from him electrifies my body. Deeply unfair for this intensity to still exist between us.

“Dinner? That’s it. Haven wanted to do that kayaking and snorkeling thing.” He’s pressing his advantage. His instincts are good.

I mull it over for a moment and nod. Dinner is harmless, right? He smooths my hair and kisses my forehead before disappearing out the door.

My eyes are closed to savor the contact, and the cool ocean breeze blows around me. Haven’s the only reason I’m not following him out the door to drag him back. I must keep my head level. I can’t be swept away again.

My mother pours another cup of tea from the tea set on her kitchen table and tips her chin in expectation. We’ve discussed everything but Wyatt. People talk, and the hospital is a gossip hive.

“What do you want to know?” I sigh.

“It should be obvious.” She throws out the hand that isn’t holding her cup of tea. “Are you going to tell him about Haven?”

“I’m not sure.” I wiggle in my seat. The big question, the one looming over every interaction.

“How long did he say he’s been clean and sober?”

“About two years.” Not long, but I don’t know how long it needs to be.

My mother works with addiction cases as a doctor. The first time I brought Wyatt home, she told me he seemed like a nice guy, but it was a shame about the drug habit. Those words would come to haunt me later.

“Are you happy he’s here?” She’s getting to the other heart of the matter.

I take a deep breath and decide on honesty. “Yes.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“What does that mean?”

“Do you remember about a year ago, when you were dating Matt, I asked if you would ever get married?”

That conversation is burned into my brain. At that point, marrying Matt hadn’t occurred to me. We broke up not long after. Even though the relationship was good, I couldn’t make myself feel what Matt clearly felt.

“I realized then Wyatt was the one holding you back. Whether you want to admit it or not, you’ve had one foot in a relationship with him for ten years. That’s the truth. You never let anyone else get close enough. The men you dated after him were dependable, reasonable, logical. Wonderful for some, but not right for you.”

I take my empty cup to the sink. My mother has always been insightful. In the ten years since I left him, she’s never confronted me about my residual feelings. “Why didn’t you say anything?” I turn around so I’m leaning against the counter to face her.

“Because if he was still an addict, love or not, he wasn’t right for you and Haven. He wasn’t. He couldn’t be.”

“You always seemed to like my other boyfriends . . .”

“There’s nothing not to like. Steady, dependable. They treated you well. You seemed to like them.”

“You make it sound so dry.”

---