Page 33 of Sunsets & Slow Dances

“It’s not okay,” he replied earnestly. “And I’m sorry about your mom.”

“Don’t be,” I insisted. “We weren’t close. You know that.”

“She was still your mom. I wanted to come back, but Felicity was about to have Matty and?—”

“You don’t have to explain. I got the flowers.”

“Nadia, I?—”

A loud knock sounded at my door, followed by Peanut barking and scrambling down the hallway, ready to confront whoever dared to step foot on the porch.

“Sorry, I just need to…” Without finishing my sentence, I walked back to the front door.

I could barely swallow over the giant lump that was in my throat as I tried to regain my composure on the short walk down the hallway. Whoever it was better have a damn good reason for showing up. They’d just interrupted a moment. I had no idea how significant a moment it was or could have been, but it was definitely a moment.

“Quiet. Sit,” I instructed Peanut, who begrudgingly plopped down on his rear end, still snorting as I opened the door.

When I lifted my head, I was caught off guard to find Will, my NYE date, standing on my porch.

“Will?”

“Hey, I just thought I’d stop by and see if you wanted to hang out.”

Will lifted a bag of takeout from Manganiello’s Italian Eatery, which since it opened a year ago had been my favorite. Most days, I could be bribed by copious amounts of carbs in a creamy sauce and garlic bread, but not today.

“No thanks.” I started to close the door when he put his hand out on the center of the door to stop it.

“I brought food and thought we could Netflix and chill.”

The term had a connotation of hooking up, which meant he hadn’t got the message even though the signals I’d been giving him were crystal clear. “Will, I told you?—”

“Listen,” he cut me off. “I don’t know what Kendra told you, but it didn’t meananything. I couldn’t find you at the bar, and she offered me a ride, and you know, it was New Year’s Eve, and I was drunk. Kendra doesn’t have anything to do with us.”

Wow. This guy had boulder-sized balls to show up again, thinking he was going to woo me with the promise of pasta and meaningless casual sex; I had to give him that. But those balls must be taking blood away from his brain if he thought I cared about him and Kendra.

Kendra Abernathy came from old money. Her family was one of the founding families of Firefly Island. They owned the ‘haunted’ Abernathy Manor. She and I were the textbook definition of frenemies. The only thing we had in common were our feelings for Callum. She had a Mount Everest-sized crush on him. That’s where the similarities end. She was the opposite of me in every way. She was a brunette with tan skin and almond-shaped hazel eyes who was five foot seven and wore a size two. She had legs for days and perfect skin. I was a five-foot-two, blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl with fair skin and curves for days.

From context clues I had, I didn’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out that Will and Kendra hooked up on NYE. The only thing I couldn’t figure out was why he thought that would bother me.

“First of all, Kendra didn’t tell me anything. And second, there is nous.”

“Well then, what the hell is your problem? Why else would you ghost me after New Year’s?”

He was either deaf or had selective hearing because he ignored the part where I said there is no us.

“Obviously it wasn’t because of your dazzling personality,” I stated flatly.

“Yeah, I know that,” he replied in earnest.

“Wow. I was being sarcastic.” I took a breath. “Okay, I didn’t ghost you. Itoldyou I wasn’t interested in seeing you again.”

“You haven’t returned my calls or messages.”

“AfterI told you I wasn’t interested in seeing you again. That’s not ghosting, Einstein.”

I heard footsteps behind me and could feel the tiny hairs on the back of my neck standing straight up. I sensed Callum’s presence and could hear him breathing. I did not want him to witness this embarrassing exchange. Clearly, Will couldn’t take a hint. I would have to be even more blunt than I already had been.

“Look, Will, my decision not to see you again has nothing to do with Kendra or anyone else.”

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