Page 52 of Lips of an Angel

I just couldn’t for the life of me figure out why.

Despite my grievances with him taking Angel to Seattle, Eli was an amazing guy. Yeah, he worked a lot, but so did Angel and I. He had a good job. He was kind, smart, and he never questioned anything about Angel and our relationship. On the surface, he seemed to accept things as they came and understand thathewas slotting intoourlife.

The closer we got to the wedding, however, the more I realized that wasn’t the case. Lately, Eli stiffened whenever I walked into the room. When he came to me with wedding questions, it seemed to be his last resort.

The only place I got a reprieve was at the bar. Eli wouldn’t step foot in the place, but I loved it. The pounding music, the sweaty bodies and writhing crowds, the noisy bartenders—they were my solace.

One night, I sent Jack to the door so I could spend some time with Ryder behind the bar. The man could mix circles around me without blinking, but we made a good team—when he wasn’t standing over my shoulder, chastising me for making his signature drink wrong.

Seriously, how was there awrongway to place plastic fangs on a glass?

I started doing it on purpose to rile him up. So sue me, it was the only thing that brought a smile to my face that day.

But it quickly faded when I looked up and found Eli standing in front of me. I jolted like I’d seen a ghost. “Is everything okay?”

“I need to talk to you,” he said, shouting too loudly to be heard over the music. He was definitely out of his comfort zone.

I pushed down a flash of irritation. “Look, if it’s about the flowers again?—”

“It’s not.” A hitch in his voice caught my attention. When I looked up, there was something in his eyes I’d never seen before: pain. “Can we talk upstairs?”

“Upstairs.” Not the office, not outside. Upstairs. That told me this was serious.

I glanced at Ryder, who silently indicated I should go. I still hesitated. Not because I was worried about leaving Ryder alone, but because I feared what the looming conversation held.

Stepping out from behind the bar, I led the way to the stairs. I didn’t need to look back to know Eli was following me. His presence seemed to consume me more with each step I took. By the time we entered the apartment and I’d shut the door behind us, I felt ready to crawl out of my skin.

“Do you want anything to drink?” I asked, like Eli hadn’t been treating this place as his own for years.

He shook his head, and his Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “I need you to tell me everything about the accident.”

“Wow,” I huffed. “Straight to the point. Why?”

“Please, Raleigh.”

Where wasthiscoming from? I’d met Eli in my freshman year. In the decade since, he’d never asked about the accident. Angel and I both made it clear that it was a sore subject, and outside of Angel’s nightmares, we never really talked about it.

But Eli didn’t seem keen to back down from the idea. Nervous, I gestured to the kitchen table. With the wedding only days away, we could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. The cake had been chosen, the suits had been tailored, and the linens had been carefully selected to give Eli the winter wonderland of his dreams—even if it was practically spring.

“What do you want to know?” I asked after we were seated.

Eli didn’t look at me. He scrubbed his hands over his face, then found a spot on the table that seemed especially interesting. “Everything. Angel has told me bits and pieces, but I want to knoweverythingthat you do. Everythingyouwent through.”

Fuck. I hadn’t talked about it in years. My parents didn’t even care enough to put me in therapy like Angel’s had. He’d been my priority back then. I’d shoved everything aside to care for him. Those feelings were buried deep, and I wasn’t sure I’d ever be ready to dig them up.

But the time to be ready was over. Eli waited expectantly, and something told me that I wasn’t going to easily get out of this conversation.

So I cleared my throat and started to talk. “I was fifteen, Angel was fourteen. They were my friends.”

“Who?”

“The group we snuck out to meet. I’m sure it comes as no surprise to you that Angel was always shy and quiet. He kept his head down, stayed out of trouble—unless I dragged him into it. The only times he ever got in trouble were situations involving me. That night, we were supposed to be in bed early because we had a big exam the next day at school. But I wanted some time to unwind. My friends didn’t want Angel to come along, but I made it clear they could have both of us or nothing at all. So after a lot of convincing, Angel agreed to come with me. It had taken so long to get him to agree that we showed up a little late. We didn’t know it at the time, but my friends had started pregaming. Nothing major, but they’d had a couple drinks.”

I’d gone over the events of that night so many times over the years, wondering how I hadn’t seen it coming. “Austin, the friend who drove us that night, always had to be the center of attention. He didn’t like that I took the spotlight away from him sometimes. He tended to act out when I was around.”

I clasped my hands together in my lap, trying to hide the way they shook. “There were six of us, and only five seats in the car. Austin was up front with his girlfriend, Sarah. Our friends, Noah and Ollie, sat in the back with me. Angel was the smallest of us, so he sat on my lap. We knew it was dangerous, and Angel wasn’t comfortable with it, but we weren’t going very far. Again, I convinced him to do it. We were only in the car for a couple of minutes before we realized something was wrong. Austin started to swerve. Even after a couple of drinks, that wasn’t normal for him.”

I paused, desperately hoping that Eli would have something to say. But he only watched me. His eyes shimmered with unshed tears, but he said nothing, instead waiting on me to continue—much to my dismay.

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