“He wants her.”
I turned to her. “Elaborate.”
She looked over at them as she answered. “He’s convinced that once she moves to Pennsylvania, they’re going to reconcile.”
I swallowed. “How far is he from where she’ll be living?”
“About forty-five minutes.”
Brilliant. Just brilliant. “You know for a fact that he’s trying to get back together with her?”
“Yeah. He’s told Stewart. I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but I suppose it’s good for you to know what you’re up against. Not that it matters anyway, right? Since you’re leaving.”
She had a point. It shouldn’t have mattered, but somehow it did. A lot.
“Do you think she still has feelings for him?”
“I don’t really know. She’d tell you she didn’t, if you asked her, but she was completely devastated when he broke up with her. So I can’t imagine that she doesn’t still harbor some feelings. Although right now, she’s really into you. Maybe she won’t realize any feelings she still has for Matt until you’re out of the picture and she’s in Pennsylvania.”
Adrenaline raced through my veins. It seemed like Bailey was intentionally trying to push my buttons, like she felt a certain animosity about the fact that I was set to hurt her friend. I couldn’t fucking blame her.
“He does care about her,” she added after a moment. “I know he broke her heart, but he says he’s always regretted it. They were so young. He thought he was doing what was right for both of them at the time. But in retrospect, he said he realizes he’s always loved her.”
Her words downright gutted me, but I appreciated her candor—until what she said next.
“I don’t think he’s the only one who still has feelings. Felicity won’t admit to anything because he hurt her. But I wouldn’t be surprised if on some subconscious level, she chose Pennsylvania for law school because she knows he’s there.”
I felt a bit sick.
After their conversation, Matt left for the day, and Felicity was quiet for the rest of the afternoon. The change in her mood made me uneasy because it told me he’d had an effect on her. But perhaps my own reaction to the idea of her harboring feelings for him made me the most uneasy.
During the ride home, she was the first to bring up the subject.
“I’m sorry for leaving to talk to Matt earlier.”
I clenched my jaw. “You don’t need to apologize.”
“It was rude of me.”
“You don’t owe me an explanation.”
“You’re probably wondering what it was all about, though.”
My pulse sped up. Fuck yes, I want to know. “You don’t have to tell me, if you don’t want to.”
She glanced out the car window. “Matt seems to think we should reconnect just because I’m moving to Pennsylvania. He claims he made a mistake when he ended things with me, and once this summer is over and I’m done with what he calls ‘my little fling’ with you, he’ll be there waiting for me.”
I wanted to fucking murder him. Clearing my throat, I said, “Is that what this feels like to you—a little fling?”
“It feels like more, even if it’s temporary.”
Reaching for her hand, I brought it to my mouth and kissed it. “It feels like more to me, too. But our situation is what it is, Felicity. You need to do whatever will make you happy after this summer.” Admitting that was hard.
“I won’t go back to him. I won’t ever have peace being with someone who left me in the past. I can never trust him again.”
Fuck. My chest hurt. “You can’t trust him for leaving you in the past, just like you can’t trust someone who’s leaving you in the future.”
She let out a long breath but didn’t respond.
“I just want you to be happy,” I whispered, meaning that, even if it killed me to think of her with another man.
“I am happy—spending the summer with you. I don’t want to think about anything beyond August,” she said.
“We have that in common.”
This time, she took my hand and kissed it. “Anyway, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable by going to talk to him.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong. My unreasonable feelings over it are what I can’t seem to grapple with.”
“Well, he’s gone now. He won’t be showing up again. So let’s not think about it anymore. Okay?”
Still struggling with my jealousy, I chewed on my lip. “All right, love.”
After some silence, I brought up something I’d been waiting to ask. “So…Sigmund told me he and the Marias are planning to spend the upcoming July Fourth weekend in Boston. He wanted to know if we wanted to join them.”
She rolled her eyes sarcastically. “As much as I love the Marias, that sort of sounds miserable to me.”
“Me, too.” I let out a relieved breath. “Good. I thought I’d ask, but I’d much rather stay here and have the house to ourselves—that is, if you want to stay with me for the weekend,” I quickly corrected. “You can have my bed. I’ll sleep in Sigmund’s room. I don’t want you to think I’m asking because—”