Page 45 of Every Star that Shines

He took a satisfying sip. “Better than my first time.” When her expression became anxious, he quickly shook his head to reassure her. “It’s good. Really. A little too much foam, but that will come with practice. It tastes perfect.”

She relaxed. “Oh, good.” She took the frothing jug over to the sink and ran some water into it.

“I’ll take care of that later,” he said. “Why don’t we go sit in the living room?”

“Sure.” Delanie set the pitcher in the sink and picked up her mug of chocolate.

Did she sound nervous, or was that his own pounding heart tainting his perception? How long had he dreamed of what he would tell Delanie if he ever got the chance? Now that he had the chance, what would he actually tell her?

He followed her into the living room. She sat on the reclining rocking chair near the window, so he chose the couch, slightly disappointed that she hadn’t sat where he could sit next to her. Don’t rush this, Caleb. If this is meant to be, it’s worth taking your time.

But Noel’s words from the other day stuck in his mind—you miss all the shots you don’t take. Cheesy as his friend’s advice was, this might be his only chance to set the record straight with Delanie. He didn’t want to waste it. Even if nothing happened between them after this, at least he would have cleared the air.

But before he could open his mouth, she asked, “Caleb, do you believe in second chances?”

His heart raced. Did she mean for them, or something else?

“Of course,” he said carefully. “How are people supposed to get better if they have to be perfect the first time they try something? If we didn’t have space to make mistakes, we would never achieve anything.”

“Hmm.” She frowned and looked out the window while she took another sip of her hot chocolate. He knew she could probably see the tree-lined dike bounding the river at the end of the street, and beyond that, the twilight would be bathing the hills on the other side of the Peace River in reddish gold. He resisted the urge to go over and look. He wanted to give her space. Besides, it would be hard to top the view he already had.

One of her hands fidgeted with her phone.

“Is this about the thing with YouTube?” And Josh? But he kept that last thought to himself.

She sighed and turned to face him, glancing at the dark screen of her phone.

“Yeah. I’m trying to decide what to do about it. My friend Desmond thinks I should make an apology video for my fans, and Marie says no way, that will only make things worse. I’m not even sure what I should apologize for, but if I don’t do something soon, I think I’ll lose some fans who may have been supporting me up until now. It’s been two weeks already, and I’ve barely said a peep about anything.” She sighed. “I just don’t know what to do. What do you think?”

He took a sip of his drink to buy himself time to think. He had never been in a situation like Delanie was in—and hoped he never would be—but he could imagine the strain she had been under as she wrestled with how to move forward. How could he possibly advise her on this?

Then again, hadn’t he been about to ask forgiveness for the mistakes of his own past? Wasn’t this just another type of relationship that needed to be repaired?

“I would be honest with your fans. That’s all you can do. They trusted you. The ones who started the mob—well, those weren’t really your fans, so I wouldn’t worry about them. They were just there for the show, and when that show became your destruction, they either joined in on the stoning or got out the popcorn and watched.”

She gave a sardonic snort. “Yeah, that’s a fair assessment.”

“But for the rest, the ones who are maybe feeling a bit lost and confused and wondering what happened and why you aren’t saying anything about it, I would tell them the truth. Don’t remain silent. That only leads to more hurt, and it will be harder to come back from that later.”

She looked at him sharply, and his conscience twinged. He had wanted to reach out to her before, but the timing had never seemed right. Would she hear his regret in his words?

“Thanks, Caleb,” she said at last, studying him with those dark eyes. “I think you’ve gotten smarter since I knew you last.”

The vulnerability in her gaze made his breath shudder.

“Delanie, I . . .” His voice cracked, and he cleared his throat, searching the carpet for the right thing to say.

“Caleb, I’m sorry,” she said.

He looked up at her in surprise. “For what?”

She put her mug on the side table next to the chair and leaned back, wringing her hands in her lap.

“What I did to you. The expectations I had. It was stupid. I mean, I broke up with you, but I somehow believed you would want to follow me to Vancouver so we could pick up where we had left off? I never once considered how you would feel about that. I was so focused on what I wanted that I didn’t think about what you wanted. Or needed. No wonder you chose Monica over me.”

Tears glistened in her eyes, melting Caleb’s fears in the face of her pain. “Delanie, I didn’t—”

“And Emma. She’s great. I mean, I’m sorry it didn’t work out between you and Monica, but you got a pretty amazing bonus out of that choice, didn’t you?” She smiled through her tears and wiped them away, sniffling.

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