Page 86 of Last Summer

“That’s not why I’m leaving and you know it.” She zips her luggage closed.

“Why then? You didn’t like what you heard? Not what you expected?”

“I don’t know what I expected. Certainly not this.”

“Then try this on for size,” he says, following her to the bathroom. “Screw and ditch is your MO. That’s how you get your interviews. You did it with me last summer, and you did it with that actor Michael Leed. You got him to spill about his affair with his male costar. You met Senator Burmeister at a fundraiser, a man you’d been trying to nab an interview with for months, charmed the shit out of him, and fucked him. Next thing you knew, his secretary is calling to set up an exclusive withLuxe Avenue. And Damien! Of course, you stayed with him, but you fucked him the night you met because you wanted his story. You told mea lotlast summer, Skye, and it wasn’t all pretty.”

She slaps him, the crack of bone on flesh startling. She’s never hit anyone. But then, she’s never been as angry as she is with Nathan. He barely flinches, but the blue in his eyes cools, two icebergs that chill her to the bone.

“I’d say that’s the meds talking, but you didn’t take any this morning.”

“That’s the truth talking.” He growls the words. “I’m only repeating what you told me last summer.”

“Why on earth would I tell you any of that?” His words burn.

“Beats me, babe. We got real close. Maybe you felt compelled to confess all your shit.”

His accusations are insulting and demeaning, designed and delivered to hurt. But what hurts more is that Nathan is telling the truth, as disgusting as he’s made her sound. Ella remembers the interviews, but they were pre-Damien.

As for Simon, Ella doesn’t know what’s the truth and what are lies. What she does know is that she can’t trust Nathan. She made a horrible mistake coming to Alaska.

Scooping up her cosmetics and toiletries, she pushes by him and dumps them in her luggage. She’s still shaking so badly that she almost drops her laptop when she picks it up.

“Didn’t you find it easy getting into bed with me? Guilt-free, I might add. You’ll do whatever it takes to get your story.”

She slams her laptop into her bag.

“I honestly thought I was different than your other lays.”

There’s so much venom in his voice that his words stop her on her way to the door. “For what it’s worth, you were different. I did care about you. But I also fucked you to see if it triggered my memories. Clearly it didn’t work.”

Partial truth. She wants him hurting as badly as he hurt her.

Nathan stumbles back, sinking onto the bed.

She grips the doorknob.

“Ella.” He speaks her name quietly.

She stops at the door but doesn’t turn around.

He sighs. “I’ll call the airline for you. Get you on the next flight out of here.”

“Thank you,” she says and leaves.

After a long flight to Reno with two layovers, a Lyft to Nathan’s house to get her car, and a four-hour drive down the mountain and into the bright lights of the city, Ella arrives home shortly before dawn. Damien’s standing in the hallway when she enters, drawn to the door by the sound of her key unlocking the bolt. His hair stands on end from the repeated abuse of his hands raking through the thick locks. His clothes, a navy shirt and gray sweatpants, look like they’ve been slept in for days. He tightly grips his phone, watching her through bloodshot eyes as though his entire world just walked through the door.

“You’re home,” he says, relieved.

“So are you,” she says, unable to contain her surprise. “When did you get here?”

“Saturday morning. I would have flown to Alaska, but...” He takes a cautious step toward her. Stops. Looks at the phone in his hand, then at her. “I didn’t know where you were.”

Because Nathan kept their travel arrangements under his name and credit card, at his insistence, which Ella agreed to, thinking nothing of it. Otherwise, Damien would have been able to track her through her purchases.

The knot in her stomach tightens. She’d been so gullible and trusting in her desperation for answers. Her desire to feel what it was like to carry and lose Simon so that she could mourn with Damien.

And here he is, home for her, when he should be in London, working to save his company.

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