Page 49 of Sweet Ruin

I tried to shake the photo from my mind as Cress and I made our way to breakfast, but my uneasiness rushed right back to me when I saw Wes coming out of the boys’ dorm. His face lit up when he saw me, and he made a beeline for us. But I struggled to form a smile in response. I knew the only way to stop my worrying was to talk to Wes about it. But the thought of that just made me even more nervous.

“Good morning, beautiful,” he said when he reached us.

He went to give me a kiss on the cheek, but I couldn’t seem to contain all the anxiety I’d been bottling up. “Can we talk?”

Wes froze, and his brow puckered as he pulled back to look at me. “Uh, yeah…”

He was clearly confused, which didn’t make this any easier. Was he simply playing dumb, or did he really not know why I was upset?

“Uh, I’ll leave you guys to it,” Cress said before hurrying away. I didn’t blame her for running—if I could have run from this situation, I would have. But there was no avoiding it. I needed to know the truth.

“What’s wrong?” he slowly asked.

“Is there something going on with you and your ex-girlfriend?” I wished I’d sounded more rational. I hadn’t planned to accuse him of anything, but my emotions had gotten the better of me. It was hard not to imagine the worst when every other relationship I’d been in had failed so dramatically.

“No, of course, there’s nothing going on,” Wes said. “Why would you even think that?”

“Because of this.” I pulled out my phone and showed him the picture of him and Sarah that Anna had sent me.

Wes’s frown grew more pronounced as he stared at the picture. He didn’t say anything for a few seconds, but it felt like an age, which really didn’t help my anxiety.

“Well?”

“Sarah was at the gala on Saturday night,” he said, finally looking back at me. “But we barely spoke.”

“Wes, it looks like she was your date.”

“Of course, she wasn’t,” he replied before stepping closer to me and taking my hands in his. “Look, her family works closely with my parents on this charity. She was always going to be there. It would have been rude of me to completely ignore her. And there were photographers doing the rounds all night.”

I stared at him as I allowed his words to sink in. What he was saying made total sense, but I still couldn’t ignore the way he and Sarah were looking at each other in the photo. How happy they seemed. “You don’t still have feelings for her? You don’t want to get back together with her?”

“Isobel, I’m with you. Getting back with Sarah never even crossed my mind.” He clasped my hands a little tighter. “I would never do anything to hurt you,” he said. “You don’t have anything to worry about.”

As I looked into his eyes, I knew he was telling the truth. Wes was too kindhearted, and I honestly couldn’t picture him cheating on me. Even if he did, I couldn’t imagine he would lie about it on top of that.

“Sorry.” I shook my head. “It’s just hard for me not to jump to conclusions. You know I’ve been cheated on before.”

“I know,” he said. “And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I saw Sarah. I just didn’t think to say anything because we barely spoke.”

“What was it like seeing her?” I asked, my voice far quieter than I’d intended. My nerves were obviously still simmering. “Did you feel—”

“I honestly felt nothing,” he said. “She felt like a stranger to me. Being with you has only made me realize how much better we are for each other. Sarah and I were never going to work. I know now that I’d been holding on to the relationship when it had died a long time ago.”

I let him pull me into a hug. If I’d seen Levi over Thanksgiving, I probably would have felt the same. I hated I’d questioned Wes and that I’d so quickly jumped to the wrong conclusion. I knew I could trust him, and yet my gut hadn’t wanted to listen. Still, I was glad we’d talked about it even if I was a little disappointed by the way I’d reacted.

The whole situation made me think about Norma’s prediction for me. She had told me to trust my heart, and while I might not believe in her psychic powers, I did believe she knew what I needed to hear. She’d seen my breakup with Levi and heard all about how things with Noah ended. Maybe she was trying to encourage me to be open to love again. And Wes was the perfect guy. Exactly the kind of guy I needed. I wanted to trust him with all my heart—but why was that so much easier said than done?

CHAPTERFOURTEEN

It had been a stressful morning, and my day didn’t get much better as it progressed. A few girls made snide comments about my boyfriend being pictured in the paper with his ex-girlfriend, and it made my stomach dip every time.

Sawyer was quick to defend Wes when I saw him at breakfast and wasted no time reassuring me nothing was going on between Sarah and his brother. Anna kept saying she should never have shown me the photo in the first place and that it was no big deal, and Cress also started to dismiss it as nothing to worry about.

I kind of just wanted to forget about it now. I felt silly for reacting the way I did, and I knew Wes was being honest with me about Sarah. Every time someone mentioned it though, the image of him with his arm wrapped around her as they smiled at the camera flashed in my mind. They looked so beautiful together and so comfortable at the extravagant gala under the flashing lights of photographers. I felt like I couldn’t compete.

If things couldn’t get any worse, I had to face my business management class with Noah after lunch. He was still choosing to sit on the far side of the room, but even that didn’t feel far enough away. It was almost like I could sense the way he refused to look at me or even acknowledge my presence. Maybe I was being ridiculous, but it made my skin prickle with irritation.

I had to wonder how someone so set on ignoring you could be so distracting. And even though my focus was on the teacher, I barely heard a word he said. I only started paying attention when he began to hand out sheets of paper.

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