Page 193

“You’re my responsibility, Nora.” Rafe’s voice is tight. “Wilde wanted to targetme,but he used you to do it. Do you know how angry that makes me? You were only made to feel afraid because of me.”

“I’m not angry at you for that,” I say.

“Well, I am. Enough for the both of us,” he says. “And now West and you?Marryinghim? You’ve been under so much stress these last months, and with your fashion show, too, and the stalker…”

I blink a few times and find that my vision shimmers. I always get teary-eyed when I’m angry, and I hate it. Traitorous tears. “Remember when you said the Fashion Showcase was silly?” I pause, swallowing the lump forming in my throat. “But I want to do this without your help. Because I’m genuinely good at it. Because I have talent and skill, and not because of our family resources.”

“I’ve always thought you had skill.”

The admission hits me harder than I expect. My throat tightens, and I say, “It’s never felt like that.”

“It hasn’t?”

“Dad never allowed mistakes. Mom never allowed any but her own. And you—you never madeany. It made it so hard to try new things. To be okay with failure. To be okay with not living up to the person you all wanted me to be.”

“Nora,” my brother mutters on the other end. “You’ve never said any of this before. None of it is true.”

I look up at the beautiful spring sky. “I like West. I like him a lot. Whatever happens, I won’t regret it. Not a single thing that’s happened between us. And you can either treat me like an adult and trust me when I say that… or you can ignore what I think so you can keep being mad at West because he broke the rule you all made back at Belmont.”

“He told you about that? About… Amber?”

“Yes. Well, some of it. Rafe, youpunchedthe man I’m dating instead of talking to me.”

“He’s my oldest friend.” His voice sounds tired all of a sudden, and so much older than his twenty-nine. “I trusted him, and he hid this from me.”

“I was the one who came on to him first,” I say.

“Sure. He always watched you too closely,” Rafe mutters.

There’s nothing to say to that. I take a deep breath. “I don’t like feeling like I’m disappointing you, but I’m not going to back down here. It’s my life, and I can’t live it on other people’s terms.”

He’s quiet for a few long seconds. “So you don’t want me to come pick you up?”

I laugh a little. “No, I’m fine where I am.”

“Fairhaven is a beautiful house.”

“It really is,” I say. “And don’t let this ruin your and West’s relationship, okay? No one is in the wrong here.”

“Maybe,” he says, and I know it’s the best I’m going to get.

“I’ll talk to you later. Bye, Rafe.”

“Bye,” he says softly, and I hang up the phone.

It takes me a long time to relax after that. I sit by the ocean, next to the boathouse, and watch as the waves come in. A single sailing boat passes out on the open water, and I breathe in deep. Let the air fill me up. The clouds are rolling in, heavy and dark, and there’s rain in the air. There’s a spring storm coming in, and I breathe it all in.

I’m not the person I was when I came here.

And I’m not going to wait for West to open up to me. Not going to sit pretty in a corner and give him sweet smiles. I turn my bracelet around, feel the engraving against my skin.

I don’t doubt that he wants me. That this is more than a convenient solution, that there’s something real here. I see it, and I feel it, and I’ve never been more sure of anything.

But I’m going to have to force him to admit that. I’m going to have to get a bit angry. And I’m going to use the skills he’s helped me hone.

When I call Amber, she answers on the fifth ring. “Have you recovered from the hangover from the party? Because I swear to god, it’s taken me three full days.”

“Just in time for another one,” I say. “Want to go out tonight? I feel like dancing.”