The Wrong Gentleman(62)

“I thought he’d apologized for whatever it was he did.”

I hadn’t told August what he’d said to me outside the restaurant—just that Landon had apologized for keeping things from me. I couldn’t bear to think about how he’d taken the most awful things of my past and tortured me with them. I still didn’t understand how the honorable, funny, protective man who I’d known for weeks had morphed into the cruel, cold stranger who’d watched from the upper deck as I left the Sapphire and hadn’t said a word.

“An apology wouldn’t change anything.” Lying was a line in the sand for me, and Landon hadn’t just skirted around the truth—everything about him, including his last name, had been made up.

But worse, when I’d been upset about the lies, he’d lashed out in the worst possible way—said things that would echo through me for the rest of my life. He wasn’t the man I’d thought he was. I’d trusted him and he’d betrayed me. I’d thought he was one kind of man when he turned out to be the worst kind of man.

“So you just give up?” she asked. “Isn’t it worth giving him a second chance? You two were so good together.”

I rolled my eyes. August had clearly fallen for the good-guy act that Landon put on. “Landon’s in my past. That’s where he’s going to stay.” I kept telling myself that over and over again, but it didn’t make the thoughts of him disappear. Those weeks with him had been so . . . real. At least for me. The way he’d held me, looked at me. The way he’d kissed me. I’d let myself believe I could have a relationship with a man. Trust someone. But I should have known better. If I ignored lessons learned in my past, I would suffer the same loss and heartbreak time and time again. I had to look to my future. “I’ve moved on.” I didn’t have anything left to say. Landon and I had seen the last of each other, and that was all there was to it.

“Well, college seems exciting. I’m so proud of you—it’s such a huge change.”

“Nothing’s set. And the admissions process is . . . There are no guarantees that I’ll get in anywhere.”

“You won’t have a problem. When you want something, you find a way.”

It was nice that she believed that, even if I didn’t.

“Thanks, August. Listen, I have to go, but we’ll talk soon.”

“If you don’t answer my next call, I’m on the next plane to Ohio.”

I grinned. That I believed. “I promise I will.”

I hung up, pulled myself off the bed, took a seat at the table, and opened the first page of the study guide. Staring at the books wasn’t going to get me anywhere. It was time I started taking steps toward my future.





Thirty-Seven





Landon


I glanced around Hayden and Avery’s comfortable home. I’d been here a hundred times before, but this time I found myself wondering what it would be like to live this way. Out in the country. With a woman I loved.

“Can you put these spoons out?” my brother asked, handing me a bunch of cutlery.

“Who are you and what have you done with Hayden Wolf?” I asked.

“You think I’m not your brother anymore because I use spoons?”

“I guess I’m adjusting to the domesticity after having been on a yacht all summer.” I was adjusting to a lot of things after this summer.

“I’m not sure I should be speaking to you,” Avery said as she pulled out a tray of vegetables from the oven. “I don’t want to take sides, but I’m on Skylar’s. You have to know that.”

Hayden rolled his eyes. “There are no sides to take. Breakups happen.”

“Have you tried to reach her?” Avery asked.

I’d thought about it. Every day since I’d last seen her. But there was no point. She was understandably angry at me, and I’d encouraged her to leave. “No. I understand why she was pissed off.” At least she’d not been brought into any real danger. That was the only thing that mattered.

“Because of all the lies,” Avery said as if I were unaware of why Skylar was upset.

“Lies he had to tell,” Hayden said. “It wasn’t as if he’d lied about being single or having herpes.”

“For the record, I don’t have herpes,” I said.

“Good to know,” Avery said. “But Skylar’s sensitive to people who don’t tell the truth. She’s had a difficult path.”

“I know,” I replied.

“You do?” Avery moved past me and put some plates out on the table.

“Yeah, she told me about her parents.”

“She did?” Avery’s face looked like I’d just told her I was about to go to the moon after dinner. “That’s big, Landon. Skylar doesn’t tell a lot of people her story.”

I swallowed. From what Skylar had told me, not even Avery knew that it was her father who killed her mother. Compared to me, Skylar came across as open, light, and breezy, but there was a lot more to her than what was on the surface. It was part of the reason I was drawn to her. “The things I didn’t tell her were to protect her. You know I hung around in Monaco after the owner of the yacht left for the summer?”