Chapter Twenty-Four Sophie #2
"Dylan..." I frown, the name is familiar as I try to recall it. Then I see a ginger-haired guy in my mind, the Homecoming King, who was a charming senior when I was a chubby freshman. Played baseball, I'm pretty sure. "He was like three grades above me, I think?"
"I was tattooing his sister—Felicity—a while back. She works in the Parks Department and was venting because one of her coworkers at City Hall was hooking up with Dylan and overstaying her welcome at their apartment. Felicity told him to kick her out."
Her jaw tightens in anger, "Then here comes my dumbass thinking I'm being helpful. Rhea needed a little extra cash and had a spare room, so I passed her number along. Thought I was doing someone a solid."
My eyes soften at the self-reproach on her face. "Ton, that's not your fault."
"Yeah, yeah. Road to hell, good intentions, yadda yadda," she mutters, waving it off.
"Still pissed at myself. You know, the one time I actually try to be helpful, this happens.
Next thing I know, Rhea's at work, bitching about her snotty, stuck-up roommate Elise bringing around her new guy—and learning just how thin her walls are. "
My face twists at that, disgusted at the implication and the audacity.
Paul just continued as normal, as if he didn't leave Sophie wrecked and ragged after lighting a match and burning down their life.
He just continued with life, jumping from Sophie to Elise as if it were no problem, as if the people in his life were inconsequential.
Not that Elise is a peach, since she knew Sophie existed when she got involved with Paul.
They sound like a match made in hell.
Tonya shakes her head, tucking the cigarette behind her ear. "Then she comes back from a tattoo convention in NOLA and realizes Elise moved him in without asking. When she told me the guy's name was Paul, I knew. The timelines lined up too perfectly."
I frown, shaking my head. "What kind of six degrees of separation..."
"Yeah, so, I realized that I had inadvertently helped—" Tonya pauses, glancing around me to see Sophie still playing with Plot. Her voice lowers into a hiss, "I helped those motherfuckers. I needed to fix it. Expeditiously and viciously."
"What did you do?"
"Well... I might have written a couple of letters to City Hall... and maybe had Rhea kick out the dickhead and she-devil... and had them black-listed from renting in this town... and a couple of other things I'm not going to tell you to maintain plausible deniability. You're welcome."
Don't ever get on Tonya's bad side. Ever.
"So... you rendered them jobless and homeless?" I ask her, not sure whether to be impressed or scared. Both, honestly.
"No less than he deserves," she scoffs, not even pretending to regret it. "For hurting our girl."
Well, I guess karma came for Paul in the form of a five-foot-ten-inch-tall blonde tattoo artist, Sophie's fiercest avenging angel.
I've always known Tonya's heart is bigger than she likes to pretend it is.
She feels deeply, she cares hard, which is why she has no problem going to the lengths she does for the ones she loves.
Tonya has been described as off-putting because she's rough, loud, and brash, but people just can't see who she truly is.
She never tries to dull Bailey's shine when she gets excited.
She and Parker bicker like it's an Olympic sport, but she was the first one at his house after his dad passed away.
She does pro-bono remembrance tattoos for widows and widowers, and she'll tend to my dad's grave, leaving a couple of flowers there for him when she's visiting her wife.
Tonya would give you the jacket off her back when it's freezing—while also calling you a dumbass for forgetting yours in the first place. She's one of the best people I've ever known, you just have to get past the armor.
"You think he'll learn from this?" I ask, my voice quiet and unsure. I don't know if I genuinely want the answer to this question. "Do you... think people can change?"
Tonya tilts her head, raising a brow at me like she already knows the question behind the question.
"Worried he'll think he's got a shot again with Sophie if he says sorry enough times?"
My silence is answer enough, and Tonya sighs in exasperation, crossing her arms and giving me a stern look.
"Yeah, I think people can change. I think if someone actually owns up to their shit, and learns from it... yeah, maybe they deserve a second chance."
My heart drops for a second, fear like ice-cold water through my veins. Tonya doesn't let the words settle for long before she continues, eyes sharpening.
"But I also think some things can't be forgotten. Sophie's got a kind heart, and I think she could forgive him. But forget?" Tonya scoffs, shaking her head slowly. "No fucking way. Not after what he did to her. That's a scar that she'll wear forever."
Those words land hard and heavy to my chest, thinking of the pain she felt, that I know she probably still feels.
She spent six years with Paul, and she had a life with him.
They went through college, vacations, holidays, and shared a home together.
She loved him—I know she did. It wouldn't have wrecked her if she hadn't.
But she's here now, with me, and she seems completely happy with me. First as friends, and now as more.
But...
I can't stop the images in my head, the version of this life where Paul didn't cheat, where she ends up marrying and starting a family with him.
Living the rest of her life with him. She'd be his, and I would pass her on the street as a familiar face in Starling Cove—never really knowing her, never hearing her laugh, never feeling her hand in mine, never knowing what her lips feel like against mine.
Now that I know her, I don't want to know what it's like not to.
I would prefer her not to be suffering from cancer, and I would give anything to take that from her, but that was the first domino that led her to walk into my store.
I told her once that maybe these things happen so we can forge a better path, but will she see it that way?
Will she think this is the better path? Does she ever miss him?
Will Sophie be okay with my simple, boring-to-most life plan of staying in Starling Cove and continuing to run the store with my mom?
Paul could potentially be mayor one day. He's well-connected, well-traveled, handsome, and charming. He's got a family that already adores Sophie, and they had already planned to build a life together.
Do I pale in comparison?
"Oh, for fucks sake. Get that look off your face," Tonya snaps at me.
"What look?"
"That kicked-puppy, insecure, 'woe is me' thing you've got going on right now," Tonya steps closer to me, blue eyes narrowed.
"You know what I do think? She'll remember who showed up.
Who chose her, over and over again? Sophie's not stupid, Callum.
She sees when the better option is standing right in front of her. "
Tonya's words are soothing, despite the harsh tone she's using. I’m instantly chagrinned, because I was doubting Sophie, doubting myself, and that's not fair to either of us.
I'm not Paul, but that doesn't make me less.
Sophie had already told me it was worth it—that Paul cheating on her was worth it to meet me.
God, those words had almost knocked me on my ass. The way she had said them so genuinely, I shouldn't ever doubt Sophie or her words. I trust that she knows her feelings, and she's always been honest with me.
Tonya nods in Sophie's direction. "That girl's got fucking cancer, and she's still smiling brighter than the goddamn sun. And that? That's because of you, Romeo."
As if sensing our gaze, Sophie glances up.
Those bright blue-green eyes I dream about catch mine, and I can't help the smile that takes over my face.
She's so damn lovely. Not just the kind of pretty that knocks the wind out of you—which, yes, she absolutely is—but the kindness, the gentleness I ache to protect, the warmth I want to burrow into and never leave.
All of those things make up the wonderful woman that is Sophie, my sweet girl.
The smile she gives me is beautiful, toothy and wide, with a cute pink flush to her cheeks, and the entire world... fades.
"Yeah, so I'm going to take that as my cue to leave." Tonya barks a laugh, grabs her helmet, and slings it over her shoulder. Sophie is already standing up, and Tonya lands a smacking kiss on Sophie's cheek as she passes her. "Enjoy your night, guys! Wrap it before you tap it!"
Sophie's face goes crimson, and I feel my face heating up from Tonya's words. When we hear Tonya's cackling laughter fade as she walks out the front door, I'm turned into a stuttering, nervous mess.
"I—I'm not expecting any, uh, tapping," I blurt, and immediately wish I could crawl under the rug and die.
"I mean—not that I don't want to, obviously I really want you, because you're—you—but not now.
Not that I'm saying never. Later? Later is fine.
If you wanted later, that is. Or not later. I mean, I would never expect—"
"Callum."
Sophie's voice is soft but cuts through my rambling like a hot knife through butter. She's walking closer to me, eyes sparkling with laughter, and God, she's so beautiful I almost forget to breathe.
"Yes?" I ask weakly, trying to recover some semblance of dignity as I reach up and adjust the crooked hat on her head.
"You're silly," she beams at me, shaking her head fondly.
"In a good way?"
"In the absolute best way," she says with a sigh, her hands coming up to rest lightly on my chest. Instinct takes over—I slide my hands around her waist, to her lower back, and press her closer to me. She comes without hesitation, both of us grinning at each other like fools.
Well, I'm grinning like a fool.
Sophie just looks incredibly happy, just the way she should always be.
When she reaches up to cup my cheeks, pulling me down for a kiss now that we're alone, I feel myself fall for her that much more. The kiss deepens, and she moans softly into my mouth, the sound nearly ungluing me.
The kiss builds softly, a slow simmer between us as our tongues gently meet. She tastes like heaven, and she feels like home.
Time slows, the world could end, and I'd have no idea.
Because Sophie's happy, Sophie's kissing me, and nothing else matters.