Page 40 of Broken Saint

“Your reputation might proceed you, Playboy. But I’m not sure that even this truck is big enough for that ego you have.”

“It’s plenty big enough, just like my?—”

“Please,” she begs. “Don’t.”

“I missed you, Bombshell.” The words are out of my mouth before I’ve even thought them and I still, my grip on both the wheel and her thigh tightening.

“Colt,” she whispers. “I?—”

“Don’t. I know I don’t deserve to say those kinds of things to you. But…it’s the truth. And, well…the words just kinda fell out.”

Finally, she rips her eyes away from nighttime Seattle outside the window and focuses on my profile instead.

“What is it?” I ask after long, agonizing seconds of silence. I have no idea what she can see on my face. The fact she cansee anything at all makes me hella uncomfortable, but I remind myself that it’s Ella. There might have been a time when I tried to be just as much as a closed-off playboy with her as I was with every other female on the planet, but those times are long gone.

“I…” Lifting her hand, she tucks a stray lock of hair behind her ear as she battles with what she wants to say. “I missed you too.”

The breath I didn’t know I was holding rushes past my lips, and I can’t help but laugh as I take the next turn, heading to one of my favorite places in the city.

Ella’s eyes return to the window as she soaks up my hometown by night, and every few minutes, I find myself studying her way more closely than I should while I’m driving.

I just…I can’t take my eyes off her. She’s here, and…she’s beautiful, and…she’s turned me into a massive fucking pussy, but I don’t care all that much.

I take the final turn, allowing her to see where we’re going.

“A park?” she asks in confusion.

“It’ll be worth it.”

“And here I was thinking I was about to get a trip up the Space Needle or something.”

“Maybe we can save that for our next date.”

“Date?” Ella blurts. “This is…you think this is a date?”

“I don’t know, Bombshell. I’ve never actually been on one before. But from what I’ve heard, it sounds like it could be.”

She melts in the seat, and I mentally give myself a little high five.

11

ELLA

Istare at Colt in complete disbelief as he heads toward the parking lot.

There is no one else here at this time, and I can’t help thinking about how perfect that is.

As I study the familiar sharp line of his jaw, the scruff covering it, the perfect straightness of his nose and then the dark gray of his eyes as he focuses on where he’s going, I’m hit with the realization that maybe I’m not the only one who’s changed in the past few years.

Colt might look the same. He’s still mouth-wateringly hot, with muscles for days and eyes that make my stomach summersault with just one look.But there are differences.

The old Colt from college would never have said those things he just did. He never would have confessed to missing me, or even thinking about me. It makes my head spin.

I’ve been so focused on the differences in me that I’ve forgotten that everyone else is growing, maturing and changing as well.

Letty and Kane are parents, and Peyton and Luc are married. Brax and West are in Chicago with Macie and Leon, living the lives they’ve always dreamed of. And while Violet and Micahmight still be in Maddison, that doesn’t mean they haven’t created lives full of happiness and laughter.

Maybe I’m just the only one who’s changed for the worse.

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