Chase: You have plans for tonight? If not, u want to grab some food and catch up?
Another long stretch passed before she finally put him out of his misery…
Scottie: Sure! I can be out of here by six-thirty. Need an hour after that to clean up. If that’s not too late, pick a place and time, and I can meet you there.
His heart kicked against his ribs as a hefty dose of excitement coursed through his veins. Moving his thumbs across his screen at warp speed, Chase hurriedly typed back…
Chase: Caterina’s @ 8?
Caterina’s Cucina wasn’t the fanciest Italian restaurant in town. But, in his opinion, anyway, it was the best. And unless things had changed since the last time he and Scottie had hung out, Italian was her favorite.
Scottie: See you at 8!:)
Relief made its presence known in the form of a long exhale. He studied the makeshift smiley face she’d sent with that last text, and just like that, the weight that had been pressing down on him earlier was all but gone.
She’d always had the power to do that. To ease whatever ailed him simply by being there. No matter what it was, Scottie had an innate ability to make him feel as if everything was going to be okay. Even at the tender age of sixteen.
Guess some things do stay the same.
Whether anything else between them had remained the same was yet to be revealed. But Chase figured, if he were lucky, they could at least resume the close friendship they’d once shared.
And as far as he was concerned, that was a damn good place to start.
6
Fourteen years ago…
“So that’s it?You’re breaking up with me? Just like that?”
Scottie’s broken heart ached so badly she thought it might literally rip in two. “It’s not just like that, Chase.” She hugged herself and shook her head. “And it’s not like I’m moving to the next town over. It’s Ohio, for crying out loud!”
She was moving to Ohio. With grandparents she loved but only saw once a year…if that. And chances were, she and Chase would never see each other again.
“We can make it work, sugar,” he uttered the adorable nickname he’d given her. “We can still talk on the phone every night after school, and I can fly there like every other month or something. We’ll spend the entire weekend together when I come to see you.”
God, she wanted that. More than anything, she wanted to keep the one good thing still left in her life. But fate was a hurtful, hateful bitch, and as hard as she’d tried to find one, Scottie couldn’t come up with a practical, realistic way to make it work.
So here she was, staring up at the boy she’d so desperately wanted to be with for the rest of her life, doing her damnedest to pretend as if her entire world wasn’t crumbling beneath her feet.
With her grandmother’s advice rolling through her grief-stricken head, Scottie continued her efforts to make a clean break and never look back. This way, Chase could be free to go on with his life.
And maybe…just maybe…she’d figure out a way to survive this new, gut-wrenching reality.
“Even if you weren’t leaving for the Navy in May, which you are, you can’t afford to buy a plane ticket to and from Ohio six times a year. Lord knows I can’t, either. And my grandparents aren’t going to let their sixteen-year-old granddaughter fly halfway across the country to see a boy who’s going to be heading off to boot camp soon, anyway.”
The pain reflected in Chase’s amazing blue eyes cut through her soul like a long, sharp blade.
“Is that what this is really about?” His Adam’s apple slid up and down with a hard swallow. “Me going into the Navy?”
Shock reverberated throughout her entire system. “What? No! I’ve always supported your dream of becoming a SEAL. You know that. I just…”
“What, Scottlynn? You just what?”
“I just don’t see us staying together. Not anymore. Not like this. And I need to…”
She wanted to tell him she needed to be sure he wasn’t tied down by her—or worse, by a misplaced sense of guilt or obligation to make sure she didn’t break under the pressure of having recently lost her mother to cancer.
Instead, Scottie looked deep into those soul-stealing eyes and lied to her boyfriend for the very first time…