“What happens?” I asked.
Her brows pulled together as she tipped her head to the side. “What?” she returned.
I held the book up in front of her and repeated, “What happens? Seven years later, when he walks back into her life, what happens?”
Avery hesitated a moment, her eyes moving between the book and my face. “Um, I don’t… I don’t know yet. I just started it, so I haven’t gotten that far,” she confessed.
“Where can I get this?” I asked.
“The book?” she wondered.
I nodded.
“I ordered it online—”
Shaking my head, I cut her off and stood up. “No. Where can I get it today?” I pressed.
Confusion was no longer the expression on Avery’s face. She was downright frightened and concerned.
“Avery, please, I’m begging you to focus,” I pleaded with her.
She stared at me for about half a second before her body went ramrod straight. Something washed over her, and her eyes widened.
“Oh my God,” she declared. “It’s her, isn’t it?”
“What?”
“She’s the girl you told Knox about, isn’t she? You know Scarlet Morgan?” she questioned me.
I wasn’t one for sharing my personal business. Nobody had Scarlet. Nobody. But right then and there, I was so consumed with emotions; I had to let it out. “It’s her,” I admitted, my voice cracking. My eyes dropped to her picture again. My thumb stroked over her picture. It was so hard to see her right there and not be able to touch her.
God.
I missed her so much.
And she never fucking called.
The next thing I knew, Avery was standing beside me. She put her hand to the middle of my back and shared, “She’s single, Ryker. For as long as I’ve been reading her books, she’s never shared anything about a spouse or significant other. Given your reaction to this book, I’m guessing there’s something pretty noteworthy about seven years. And Ryker, this book was just released recently.”
“What does that mean?” I wondered.
“It means that whatever significance there is to seven years, Scarlet isn’t over it either,” Avery advised.
I closed my eyes. What happened?
After a few seconds of silence, I turned my attention to Avery. “Would it be alright…” I trailed off. Swallowing hard, I tried again. “Would you mind if I held onto this until I go back out to work?” I asked.
“Keep it, Ryker,” she insisted.
I shook my head. “No, it’s yours. I just… I just want a few more minutes,” I explained.
Avery’s eyes searched my face. I’m not sure what she was looking for, but she finally replied, “Yeah. Of course. Whatever you need.”
She brought her free hand to my forearm, squeezed, and walked away. When she made it to the door, she called, “Ryker?”
“Yeah?” I answered.
“If you need to talk… I’m here,” she offered.
“Appreciate it, Avery,” I responded.
At that, she walked out.
I sat back down and stared at my girl.
I didn’t know what happened to us. I didn’t know why Scarlet wasn’t a doctor. I didn’t know why she was an author now. But the biggest thing I didn’t know was why she never called.
If what Avery said was true and Scarlet hadn’t found someone else, it made no sense. Seven years after she made that promise to me, I waited for the phone to ring. As each day passed and the call never came, I grew more and more frustrated.
I tried explaining it away. I’d try to reason with myself. It was medical school. Maybe it was tougher than she had anticipated, and she needed more time to complete it. For about a year, I chose to believe that. When the call never came a year later, I couldn’t bring myself to look her up or call her. I didn’t want to see that she’d broken her promise to me. I didn’t want confirmation that she’d moved on. I didn’t want to believe she didn’t love me anymore.
So, it was just easier to let the loss of her eat me alive.
Not having her after all these years was the reason I was so grouchy all the time. My life just felt empty. Even when our LT Motorsports team succeeded in reaching goals at the track, it didn’t feel as good as I knew it should have. I went through the motions, day in and day out.
And now, seeing her face on the back of a book, I didn’t know what to think.
Seven years.
It had now been seven years too long.
I sighed.
Realizing I still had hours of work ahead of me, I forced down some food, never once taking my eyes off her. When I finished, I got up, threw out my garbage, and walked back down the hall.
I stopped at Avery’s desk. Her concerned eyes came to mine. I held the book out to her. “Thanks,” I said.
Cautiously, she took it from me. “What are you going to do?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” I answered honestly.
“But you are going to do something, right?”
I shrugged. I wanted to. I wanted that more than anything. “She was supposed to call me, Avery. Seven years ago, which was also seven years after I walked out of her apartment at college, she made me a promise. She was going to call me in seven years. She never did.”
There was no mistaking the look of sorrow on Avery’s face. It was only there for a moment before it was gone, and she declared, “So, find her and ask her why. If nothing else, you deserve an answer. Do you know where she lives?”
I shook my head. “I have her number,” I confessed.
Avery’s eyes grew huge. “You have Scarlet Morgan’s phone number?” she asked. “Do you even realize how crazy that is?”
“No. Because she’s not Scarlet Morgan, the author, to me,” I told her. “She’s Scarlet Morgan, the girl I fell in love with at sixteen years old.”
“Ryker…” she trailed off.
I couldn’t do this. It was already difficult enough as it was. If Avery started getting emotional about my relationship with Scarlet, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from losing my cool.
“I’m okay,” I lied. “I need to get back to work.”
Avery gave me a look that told me she didn’t believe me, but thankfully she didn’t call me out on it. Instead, she replied, “Okay. Well, as I said before, I’m here if you want to talk about it.”
At that, I pushed through the steel door that separated the shop from the office and walked over to the Corvette I would be spending the rest of my day working on. Normally, given the way my life had been for the last fourteen years, especially since I started working at LT Motorsports ten years ago, I would stay late to finish up a job. It wasn’t like I had anyone to go home to and spend my time with. I still didn’t. But tonight, I’d be leaving at the end of the workday.
Because even though I told Avery I didn’t know what I was going to do, I did know one thing with absolute certainty. I was driving to the nearest book store.
“Is it done yet?”
“Not yet, but I’m pushing for no later than Wednesday.”
“So, why are you calling me then?”
“I just needed to take a quick break.”