“It’s not just the dry spell. A few months ago, we were seriously considering moving to Florida together. Starting a life there together. Now we barely talk.” She sighs and flips her dark hair over one bare, freckled shoulder before meeting my eyes. “Has he told you anything? About another woman or . . . any other secrets that might explain why I feel like my relationship is falling apart?”
“I wish I knew.” I shake my head. When Colton and Ellie started getting shaky, Colton pulled away from me, too. We both race motocross and use the same team for almost everything, but he’s been off his game—missing workouts and practices, blowing off races, and pissing off all the people who depend on him to make their living. I scan the kitchen to make sure we’re still alone. “You think he’s using again?” The question’s been gnawing at me for months, but there’s no one I could ask but Ellie. I guess I didn’t want to make it real by saying it out loud.
“I think it’s possible. That would explain a lot.” She shrugs. “If he is, he’s hiding it. I can’t say as much for the late-night phone calls with his stepsister.”
“Molly?”
She nods, and her blue eyes fill with tears. “And now she’s moving back to town. You should see them out there—whispering to each other when I step away from the table.”
I blow out a breath. Fuck, Colton. I’ve been working behind the bar tonight to help out Jake, and I saw the way Colton was looking at Molly. The thing is, I didn’t think it was sexual. Colton’s always been attracted to Molly, but tonight was different. More intense. More like they had a secret. “You think they’re involved?”
“I think he hasn’t touched me in two months and barely talks to me, but he’s up at all hours on the phone with her and can’t keep his damn eyes off her. You do the math.”
“What did he say when you asked him about all the calls?”
She bites her bottom lip and folds her arms.
“You did ask him about it, right?” She avoids my eyes—in the same way she’s obviously avoiding this conversation with Colton. I shake my head. “El . . .”
“I mentioned I’d heard him on the phone late at night,” she says. “He said, ‘Sorry. I’ll be quieter next time.’” She squeezes her eyes shut. “I haven’t asked more directly because I’m scared of the answer.”
“Do you want me to talk to him?”
Her eyes fly open. “I want you to cut off his dick.”
I grimace, resisting the urge to cover my own equipment. “Is there an option B?”
“You’re right. Ugh.” She shakes her head. “I should go back out there and get Colton home before he’s too trashed to talk. Apparently, it’s time to face my fears.”
“Maybe it’s not what you think. Maybe there’s an explanation for all of this.”
“Yeah, like he’s not attracted to me anymore.”
“I’m sure that’s not it.”
“Do you have any idea how quickly you feel ugly when the person sharing your bed never touches you? And I’m not just talking about sex. There’s been no kissing or cuddling or anything. It’s like I’m suddenly repulsive to him.”
“You’re anything but repulsive, Ellie.” My words are nearly a whisper, as if crossing this line is less of an offense if I do it quietly. “You’re as gorgeous now as you were the day you started dating him—hell, probably even more so. If Colton isn’t touching you, the problem is with him, not you.”
A blush creeps up her cheeks, and she swallows. “Thanks, Levi. I needed to hear that tonight.” The pink strapless dress she’s wearing is short as sin, creeping up her thighs as she scoots forward to jump off the counter. The less evolved part of my brain wants to look at those thighs again, maybe see if I can catch a flash of what she’s wearing beneath her dress. I don’t. “I promise to try talking to him before I start sharpening my knives.”
“Good. Orange isn’t your color.”
“I’ll see you around.” She hops off the counter and squeezes my shoulder.
Nodding, I shove my hands in my pockets and watch her go. Ellie gives me restless hands. Hands that want to touch, to take, to steal what isn’t mine. I’m not that guy anymore, and no matter what I feel for her or how long I’ve felt it, I owe Colton way too much to betray him like that.
Ellie
Colton is quiet on the drive home. I’m behind the wheel, completely sober, and he’s slumped in the passenger seat, somewhere in that la la land between buzzed and drunk.
“Molly’s really moving home?” I ask.
His jaw hardens, and he nods, looking out the window and not at me. Not looking at me has become his specialty lately.
“Do you think that’s weird? Her moving home after all these years of hardly even visiting?”
“Brayden offered her a good opportunity.”
“Yeah, but there’s gotta be a reason she didn’t want to be here, and now she’s suddenly changed her mind.”
Colton shrugs. “It’ll be good for her to be closer to her mom. She’s had it hard for the last few years.”
Is there anything you want to tell me, Colton? I swallow back the question. I’d planned to ask Levi but changed my mind at the last minute. I’m not sure Levi would even know, but either way, I want to hear it from Colton instead. “Have you ever met her kid?”
He shakes his head, but that angry line of his jaw ticks. “I didn’t even know he existed until a few months ago.”
“When I was in the bathroom, I heard a couple of girls talking about Molly. Maybe they went to high school with her or something? They were really gossiping hard.”
He looks at me now. “You can’t believe the shit people around here say about Molly. Bitches like that aren’t going to make it any easier for her to come back.”
“It sounds like it’s pretty important to you. Her living here, I mean.”
“Yeah,” he says, “I can’t take care of her or help her with the kid when she’s so far away.”
That twists something inside me. Part of me wants Colton to worry about taking care of me and our kid, even though he doesn’t know I’m pregnant. That part is curling up into a ball, pulling a blanket over her head, and hiding from this conversation. The other part of me is sitting up and demanding answers. “The girls said Noah is yours,” I blurt.
He stills. When he finally nods, it’s so weird, as if I’m watching this from the other side of a TV screen. His reaction is more as if I’m delivering news and he’s processing it, and not like he’s confirming something that could change our whole lives. “Yep. Kid’s mine.”
Nausea lurches in my stomach, and I pull the car over and throw it into park so I can rest my head on the steering wheel.
“Don’t be dramatic,” he mutters.
“Kid’s mine. That’s all you’re going to say?” What a fucking screwed-up time to find myself knocked up. “Is this why you two have been spending so much time on the phone? Talking about Noah?”
He nods. “Noah, and how we’re going to get her to move home.”
My eyes burn with tears, and Colton just looks irritated that I’m bothering him with my questions. “How could you keep this from me?”
“Ellie, don’t make this about you. It’s nobody’s business but Molly’s.”
I straighten. “You don’t think that your baby mama moving back into town with your four-year-old son affects me at all? Your life is about to change. What happens when she moves back, Colton?”
“What do you mean?” He sounds tired. He’s checked out of this conversation. I know he’s buzzed and it’s not fair to talk about our future at this moment, but I’ve reached a breaking point.
“You never even told me you slept with her, and now I’m supposed to just be cool with that fact that she has your kid? A kid you found out was yours months ago but never told me about? None of this makes any sense. You’re not behaving like a normal human being.”
“How do you want me to behave? You want me to throw a fit? To scream at her for not telling me sooner? To bitch her out for not letting me protect her?”
I frown. “Protect her from what?”
He shakes his head. “It’s just been a lot for me to process. Get off my back.”
“You should have told me.”