Page 63 of Trouble in Love
I never should have come back.I don’t belong in this town, in this house, with these people.
Dad burst through the door, his face awash with tears as he begged me to stop and listen. “Your mum, she was so beautiful, so far out of my league and so not interested in me. Her boyfriend, the one she really loved had broken up with her and I was there, just something to fill her summer nights. It was different for me, though. I’d loved her almost my whole life.”
“Why are you telling me this?” I yelled as I leapt onto my bed and plonked my ass on my overflowing suitcase.
“Because she fell pregnant the first time, we …” he paused, blushed. “Our first time together and her parents threatened to disown her if we didn’t get married. So, a week later we did, and it was the best thing I ever did, Plop— Polly.” He stopped, catching and correcting himself just before I really lost my shit. “Your sister and then you, were the best decisions we ever made. Please don’t leave like this.”
I gave up my fight with the zipper and collapsed back onto my bed. It was not comfortable. “Best decision you made. But what about—”
“Don’t try and stop her, Murray,” Mum’s voice echoed from the hallway. “She doesn’t belong here anymore.”
My eyes fell closed. “I never did.” Slipping off my half-closed case, I dragged it onto the floor, grabbed whatever else I couldcarry and walked into the hall, passing mum who was standing just outside the door. Arms over chest, chin jutted in defiance. I could have been looking in a mirror. “Just so you know, Mum. I wasn’t sleeping with Luke.”
“It wouldn’t change how much we love you even if you were, Polly.” Dad replied. His big sausage fingers wrapped around mine, encompassing my whole hand, just as they did in every other photo I’d ever seen of the two of us. For a second, I let him hold it and found comfort in his touch.
“It matters to me,” Mum barked, inserting the rubber end of her crutch between me and dad. “Once again, you’ve ruined everything, Polly ... almost everything. I’ve managed to convince Elias to go ahead with the wedding but only if you agree to get married as soon as legally possible and don’t you dare argue with me. No one else will want you now and who could blame them. Now go back to Sydney and wait for my call. I’ll organize everything from here myself. I don’t want to look at you anymore.”
Luca
An emergency room, five stitches, and a voyage onto a roof to collect a passport-filled sock later, I was packed and ready to go … almost. Remorse over hurting a friend weighed heavily on my conscious, but the fear of being knocked out cold by a five-foot-nothing blonde holding a knife had adrenaline balancing that out . “Evie. I know you don’t want to talk to me right now.”
“Or look, or see, or breathe the same air as …” she finished.
“Yep. All that. But I need to ask a favor.” The large, almost machete-sized weapon she was about to annihilate a hapless watermelon with was dropped as she stared at me in disbelief.
“You’re fucking kidding me, aren’t you? You want to ask me a favor after what you’ve done?”
“I have no right. I know that. But yes. Yes, I do.”
Chills tickled the length of my spine as she snort-laughed and reclaimed her blade. “I’m all ears.” With a giant swing, she raised it over her head, her smile spreading as it slammed it down, slicing the whole watermelon in half in one go, no doubt while imagining it was my head.
“It’s my phone … I think it fell from my pocket when I was fighting with Luke. I just need to check that she’s okay, Evie. I promise that is all I will do. I swear. I just need to know before I leave.”
“Why do you even care?” she asked, again raising the blade then bringing it down with a thunk.
“Why do I care if she’s okay?”
“Yeah. I don’t get it. You’re this hot, rich hockey dude who’s about to fly home to his mansion and legions of fans. Why do you care if some Aussie chick who’s brought nothing but misery to everyone she knows, is okay or not?”
The ease and rightness of my response surprised even me. “Because, yes, she’s done bad things, butsheis not bad. I know all her secrets. I see what I see what lies beneath and I …” , “
Evie’s breath caught, her brows knotting as she froze. “And I?”
“And I …”I think I love her. “Icareabout her.”
“You don’t.” It was said emphatically with an equally assured head shake. “You can’t. Even knowing what I think I know now, I know she’s un-care-about-able.”
“What?” It took a second for my brain to decipher, “No, she’s not and yes,I do. When I saw Luke touching her, I wanted to kill him, Eves. And I can’t stop thinking about her. She’s here,” I said, tapping my temple, “All the time and she has been from that first night in Sydney. I don’t know why. I know I hardly know her … but I know.”
Evie remained quiet for several beats. It was highly concerning. “But you’re leaving.”
My stomach dropped like it was hearing the news for the first time. “I am.” I swallowed. “And that’s why I need to make sure she’s okay. That and I need to say goodbye.”
In my mind, one of two–maybe three–things were going to happen. I was going to meet my bloody end. Evie was going totell me to fuck off and wait outside for an Uber to haul my ass away. Or she was going to give me her phone.
“Don’t let her manipulate you, Luca.” She said, her lip twitching. “I know she’s had some bad shit happen, but I also know what she’s capable of.” With that, she reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. “Just remember you deserve better than Polly Hart.”
I wasn’t about to look a very beautiful, angry gift horse in the mouth, so with a raised eyebrow and a nod of thanks, I took the phone and backed away.
