[BOOK2] Sequel to Tangled Hearts
*****
I want her.
I want her more than I've ever wanted anything.
But I can't have her. Because the moment I admit that out loud, the moment I risk everything we've built, I could lose her.
And losing Isla? That's...
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Isla was smiling beside me, her mint chocolate chip cone in hand, completely unaware of her dick of a boyfriend. It took everything I had not to tell her what I overheard in the locker room. Jake's words echoed in my head, each one hitting harder than the last. But I couldn't dump all that on her. Not yet.
Not when she looked so... carefree.
I forced a bite of the strawberry ice cream I barely tasted. What the hell was I thinking? Strawberry? I should've just walked home in silence. But Isla had a way of pulling me into these little moments, making me forget—if only for a second—that there was something bigger gnawing at me.
"Psycho," I muttered under my breath, glancing sideways at her. She wasn't wrong about me being weird with my flavor choices today.
"Sorry, what was that?" she asked, flashing me a grin before licking the edge of her cone.
I shook my head. "Nothing. Just thinking you might've been right about the strawberry."
She chuckled softly, her shoulders bumping mine as we walked. I could feel her watching me out of the corner of her eye, like she was waiting for me to crack, to spill whatever was sitting heavy on my chest. But I kept my mouth shut. Isla didn't need to carry my anger at Jake. Not when things between them were already complicated enough.
We turned the corner toward our street, the ice cream parlour a small dot in the distance now. My stomach churned, my mind replaying Jake's smirk in the locker room, the way he acted like he owned the world. Like he owned her.
I clenched my jaw, the cool night air doing little to calm me down.
"So," Isla started, her voice light, probably trying to ease whatever tension she sensed, "are you gonna tell me what really happened with Jake, or should I just assume you two had a fight over who likes strawberry more?"
I stiffened, staring straight ahead, trying to ignore the way her question poked at all the anger I'd been trying to keep buried. "It's nothing, Isa."
She gave me a look, one eyebrow raised, waiting for more.
But there was no way I was telling her. Not about Jake's plans to cheat on her. Not about the disgusting way he talked about her, like she was just some obstacle to his fun. She didn't deserve that. She deserved better.
"It's fine," I repeated, my voice harder this time. "We just... don't see eye to eye. That's all."
She studied me for a beat, her ice cream almost forgotten in her hand. "You're a terrible liar, Theo."
A bitter laugh slipped out before I could stop it. She wasn't wrong. I was crap at hiding things from her. But this? This was different.
I glanced down at her, my heart twisting. She didn't need to deal with this. Jake was her boyfriend, and even though he didn't deserve her, she had to figure that out on her own. Dad's words echoed in my head: You need to be smart about this. Isla's going to see who he really is, but you can't force it.
