Page 99 of Last Fall

“Oh trust me. I’m not turning down help fromtheZoe Hyde. And then when you’re my sister you’ll be forced tohelpme.”

I choked on my own breath. “Excuseme?”

“Oh come on. You’re head over heels for my brother and he’s nuts about you. Become my sister and make it easy on me to steal advice any timeIwant.”

“So this is really about you?” I laughed, feeling a little bit less like the world was closing inonme.

“Well of course. I’m glad Erik is happy but now that the two of you have put big dreams into my head I’m beingselfish.”

And I couldn’t be happier...as long as she steered clear of conversations about marriage for at least a few weeks. “So now that Erik is away and I’m home alone I’ve had a chance to think about our last conversation.” And think and think andthink.

Belle had a boyfriend with many similarities to Tony and she encouraged me to confideinErik.

“Have you told him?” she askedsoftly.

“Some. Not all.” Honestly, I didn’t know how. I still had a blank sheet of paper in frontofme.

“Marco was my first college boyfriend,” she said. “I can say looking back I’m not entirely sure what I saw in him other than he was the exact opposite of my brothers. He was loud and brash. Kind of an asshole. I should have been repelled by him, and today I would be, but at eighteen he wasexciting.”

“Are your brothers that overbearing?” Jack was a bit disgruntled but I couldn’t tell if that was a lifelong trait or a recent, divorce-induced, development. And then there wasRiley.

“Yes,” she said honestly. “After Dad died they overcompensated, I think. I don’t know, maybe it’s their way of coping. It hit Jack and Erik the hardest because they wereteenagers.”

“How long have you been in love with Riley?” It may have been too soon to push a question like this, but Belle and I were developing a brutally honest relationship so it felt like something we should get out intheopen.

She huffed. “How long have I been in love with Riley? Too long. He and Jack had been coming home for a few years but I was just a kid. I had an overbearing mother, overbearing brothers. All I saw when Riley came around was another pain in the ass telling me what to do. Until one day,” she laughed and I could picture her smiling and shaking her head. “One day he sees me broken down two blocks from home. I’m about to call Mom for help when he pulls over and offers to look under the hood. He bent over and his shirt rode up, and for the first time I saw him as a man. And I wasdonefor.”

“And how long ago was that?” Were we talking months oryears?

“It was four years ago. Right before I started datingMarco.”

Which brought us full circle to the conversation she asked to have with me today. “I don’t want him to see me differently,” I confessed. I saw myself differently every time I thought about Tony, so why wouldn’t he? Why couldn’t I keep what we had safe and special from thatdrama?

“How do you think Riley sees me? As the victim? As afuckup?”

“Absolutely not.” Those words didn’t even cross my mind. Belle was young and determined. Period. “He looks at you like you could fly. Like you’re the most amazing woman he’severseen.”

“Oh...” she gasped. “Wow. Okay. I was almost positive he liked me and that was why he’s a total dick to me sometimes, but wow.Really?”

“Really. I sat there the whole time we were at dinner wondering if you two were going to leave together so you couldmakeout.”

She sighed. “That has never happened, but now that I know he’s definitely interested I will be putting the movesonhim.”

I didn’t understand how she could be so carefree about love after what she’d been through. “Justlikethat?”

“Well of course,” she giggled. “It’s Riley. He’s one of the best men I’ve ever known. I might be overly fixated on making my own way in the world but I’m not stupid. If he’s interested then I’m available. And you shouldn’t be worriedaboutErik.”

“No?”

“He looks at you like God himself placed you on this earth. He’s not going to see you differently after you tell him. He couldn’t. He’s too in love with the woman you’vebecome.”