Page 97 of Uniquely in Love

She hadn’t called. Hadn’t texted. No, she’d let me take her virginity, let me give hermyvirginity, and then fled as soon as I’d gone to morning skate.

I clicked her name from my contacts list, calling her.

“Pick up, pick up, pick up,” I chanted to myself.

But she didn’t answer the phone.

“Fuck!” I exclaimed, throwing my phone across the room.

Owen

Ellie. Come back, please. Can we talk?

No response.

I’m begging you, Daisy. I can’t live without you. I don’t want to.

What happened? Did I hurt you? Fuck, if I hurt you, I just…

I pinched the spot between my eyebrows. All of my messages were still unread. Which, if she was driving, would make sense. What could I do?

Flopping back on my bed, I threw my arm over my eyes, blocking out the light.

“Mom,” I said, my voice hoarse.

“Hi, honey,” she said, tone full of concern. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

I shook my head, even though she couldn’t see me. No, I wasn’t okay, not in the slightest.

“She’s gone. She’s gone, and she broke up with me, and I don’t even know what happened, but sheleft.”

I didn’t know when I’d started crying, only that I’d never felt heartbreak like this before. Almost twenty years and I’d never felt a level of devastation like this. My entire future vanished in front of my eyes.

“Slow down, Owen.” They were words meant to soothe. “Start over from the beginning. What happened?”

Suddenly, all I wanted was my mom. For one of her hugs that always seemed to make everything better. For the scent of baked goods & roses that always permeated our house. Instead, I was here—alone.

“Ellie came up this weekend to see me,” I started. “I thought everything was great. But I left for morning skate, andgrabbed breakfast for us on the way back and when I got back to my room, she’d left.”

“And she didn’t say anything?”

I rubbed a hand over my face. “No. Just a note. I tried to call her, but she didn’t answer. She told me she loved me, Mom. How could she do this?”

“I’m so sorry, Owen. I wish there was something I could do to make it better.” But what could she say? My mom wasn’t there last night. She didn’t know what we had shared. And then to lose her after that—after the most precious, special moment that I thought meant something to both of us—was gutting.

And I still had to go play a hockey game later today. After having my heart pulled out of my chest and stomped on. It was even worse, because I knew the Seals were looking at me. Debating on calling me up early.

“I don’t know if I want to come home for Thanksgiving this year,” I said, looking at the giant calendar on my wall. I’d circled the date I got to go back home, but in the end, every moment there would be one spent around her. My life was too entwined with Ellie’s.

And how could I face her after sheleftme?

I couldn’t.

“Maybe we’ll make the trip up there,” Mom offered. “It might be fun for the four of us. Seattle’s a great city. Who knows, it might give me inspiration for my next book?”

I let out a small groan at her last comment—we loved to tease her for writing romance novels, but really, I was damn proud of my mom. And the way she’d raised us, we’d grown up with books all over the house. Reading was practically second nature to me. Some guys on my team struggled with assignments because they didn’t enjoy it, but I would happily devour a fantasy novel whenever I had free time. Even the ones that my teammates joked could be used as a brick.

“I’d really like that,” I admitted. “It would be nice to haveyou up here. And then you could come to my game that weekend.”

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