Page 39 of Say You Remember Me
Like, maybe for a moment, I wouldn’t have to carry it all alone.
We stood like that for a while, the waves crashing in the background, and when my sobs quieted, he pulled back just enough to look at me. “Do you wanna talk about it?” he asked gently.
“Not yet.” I shook my head.
He nodded, respecting that, and sat down in the sand next to me. “Okay. Well, in that case…let’s talk about something else. Like, uh…cats.”
I blinked through my tears, caught off guard. “Cats?”
“Yeah, you know…pets. Do you like them? Ever thought about getting one?”
“Actually…” A small, broken laugh escaped my lips, and I wiped my eyes. “I’ve always wanted a cat.”
“Really?” His face lit up. “What would you name it?”
“Satan, of course,” I said without hesitation.
“Satan?” He sputtered in disbelief. “You’d name your cat Satan?”
I couldn’t help it—I laughed again, this time for real. “Yep. I mean, imagine yelling ‘Come here, Satan!’ or ‘Get back inside, Satan!’ at the top of your lungs for all the neighbors to hear. They’d wonder what was going on at my house.”
“That’s actually amazing.” He laughed with me, his grin wide and genuine. “And now I kind of want to steal that idea.”
“Okay,” I said. “But you have to wait at least five years. Give me a chance to use it first.”
“Deal.”
The heaviness in my chest loosened, the weight of everything not gone but momentarily lighter. When we stopped laughing, he looked over at me, his eyes soft and understanding.
“You’re going to be okay, you know,” he said quietly, his voice steady and sincere. “I know it feels like your world’s crashing down, but…you’ll figure it out.”
“Sorry about that,” Ian’s voice came from behind me, pulling me out of the memory. Chills raced across my arms, and for a split second, I could’ve sworn his voice sounded exactly like the boy from the beach.
No…it couldn’t be. Could it?
I replayed the details in my mind. He’d gone to Yale, right? And he’d mentioned a girl—someone he thought he was goingto marry—who had cheated on him. Just like the article I’d read about him and Margot.
But it couldn’t be. The odds of us both being at the same beach in North Carolina, at the same time, nine years ago… It felt impossible. Coincidences like that didn’t happen.
And yet, something deep inside me tugged at the idea. Maybe my memory had blurred his face with Ian’s over the years, but the more I thought about it, the more I couldn’t shake the feeling. What if…after all this time, the boy who had comforted me when my world was unraveling had somehow become the man standing in front of me now? The man giving me a job at another pivotal moment in my life.
“I think I’m ready to head out,” Ian said, not seeming to notice my mind was racing a hundred miles a minute. “You ready?”
“Yes,” I replied, my mouth thankfully functioning while my mind raced.
“Great,” he said, his voice steady, while my heart still tried to piece together a puzzle I wasn’t even sure was real. “My car’s in the garage.”
12
IAN
I walkedbeside Maddie as we headed toward the spot where her car was parked, the early afternoon sun casting a soft glow over the leafy trees above. I’d already stowed my bags in the back of my Bugatti, so when we reached her sedan, I moved ahead, grabbing the bags from her trunk.
“Oh, thank you,” she said, as if surprised that I’d assist her.
“No problem,” I said before leading her to the garage where my car was waiting.
I’d considered having Alex, my driver, take us so I could get some work done during the drive. But after days of prepping for this summit, I needed the quiet hum of the road to calm my fried brain, so I told Alex to get the Bugatti ready for me to drive instead.
