“I have no idea,” she said.
“I posted that picture of us,” Zoey said as she scrolled through her phone. “It automatically tagged where we are. My account isn’t private, so he might have seen it there.”
“Very likely.” I sighed and looked over at Ethan.
“I’m so sorry,” Zoey said, reaching out and grasping my arm. “I didn’t think about Cole even being around, let alone stalking my account to get to you. Should I delete the picture?”
“No reason for that now,” I replied.
“I’m changing my account settings right now.” Zoey tapped rapidly for a moment as I turned back to Presley.
“Are you going to cut Ethan a little more slack now?” I asked.
“That was pretty awesome,” Presley said. She smiled at Ethan. “I guess you can stick around. I think we’d all admit that putting Cole down earned you a bunch of points.”
“Thanks,” Ethan said, “I think.”
Presley laughed and gave him a hug.
“Once everyone hears about this,” Presley said, “they’re all going to love him.”
“That’s a good thing,” I said. “I’m going to need a lot of support tomorrow.”
“Why tomorrow?” Presley asked.
“I’m going to take him to Vanessa’s luncheon. It’s my graduation party, and I want Ethan there.”
“That ought to be entertaining,” Zoey said.
Presley looked at me intently for a moment.
“You really are serious,” she said. “You’re serious about this and about him.”
“I am.”
“I’m starting to see why.” Presley gave Ethan a genuine smile.
Ethan reached over and took my hand, pulling me close to his side and kissing the top of my head.
“Will you both be there?” I looked at Presley and then Zoey.
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world!”
Chapter 26—Enlighten
“I guess that was your ex?” Ethan stroked his thumb along the back of my hand.
“Unfortunately, yes.”
We walked through the front doors of Ethan’s apartment building and headed for the elevator. I was exhausted from the evening’s encounter, and Ethan had been unusually quiet on the way back to his place.
Inside the apartment, Ethan wordlessly led me to the pink bean bag chair, sat me down, got me a drink of water, and began to massage my feet. My body relaxed immediately, but my mind was still focused on the image of Cole’s angry face.
“He gave you that scar on your lip, didn’t he?”
I blinked several times while I stared at Ethan. He didn’t look up. He just kept rubbing my feet. Lying about how I got the scar had become second nature, and the desire to deny it had anything to do with Cole was strong, but I wanted to be honest with Ethan.
“How did you know that?” I asked.