Cecilia, present day

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“I don’t really know where to begin,” CeCe said, whiskey in hand. She took a sip of the fiery liquid, relishing the burn as it went down, soaking up the notes of oak and honey and—

She was delaying.

But she really didn’t know where to start.

Six years ago, they’d worked through the traumatic end to her first trip to Scotland, but it had taken about two point six million emails and direct messages from Colin before she’d even begun to forgive him.

The image of him walking away on the cliffside, wind mussing his hair, the moonlight transforming his solid form into shadows in mere seconds had broken a piece of her CeCe knew would never be the same.

Her innocence.

No, that part had been freely given. But he’d taken her ability to . . . dream.

Happy endings were no longer guaranteed. She wouldn’t ever be rescued by a man on a white—or in his case, a black—stallion.

It had taken her a long time before she’d begun to appreciate that having her heart broken had ultimately been a good thing. She couldn’t have continued in this world with those naïve, rose-colored glasses on. She certainly wouldn’t have survived college if not for Colin’s cold treatment.

And she probably never would have spoken to him again at all if he hadn’t messaged at one of her lowest times.

A torn rotator cuff.

A hugely significant tear that had required surgery.

She remembered being helped into a sling by the sports therapist, Sally, pain scorching her left arm with each tiny adjustment, but that hurt had been eclipsed by the conversation echoing through the closed door to her coach’s office.

The voice that had been alternately stunned then shocked into silence then furious when he’d told her parents she’d been hurt.

“What do you mean, it serves her right?” he’d shouted, making her wince and Sally apologize for hurting her.

CeCe hadn’t the heart to tell Sally that her shoulder was nothing when compared to knowing that her parents were coldhearted assholes who just couldn’t put their own egos aside to love their daughter as she was.

It had been stupid to hope, to dream that her parents might one day see reason and find a way to care for her.

That wasn’t possible.

And Colin had made it easier for her to shed that desire, to tuck it away and move forward and work harder.

She’d never reached out to her parents again. Not after the surgery, not after the physical therapy, not after all the blood, sweat, and tears had ended up with a shoulder that would never be good enough to swim competitively. And not after her scholarship was rescinded and the bills piled up and she’d been alone.

Warm fingers brushed her cheek. “I don’t care where you start, sweetheart. Just tell me anything.”

She sighed and glanced down at the glass in her hand, running one finger over the curved edge. “I think if you hadn’t messaged me again right at the moment you did, I wouldn’t have come back. No matter what.”

“I wouldn’t have stopped.” A pause, blue eyes locked on hers. “No matter what.”

Her lips twisted. “You say that so confidently.”

“I almost flew over when I found out you’d been hurt.”

“What?” She glanced up and saw the truth in his eyes. “Why didn’t you?”

He took a sip of whiskey. “I didn’t think I’d be welcomed by your parents, and I didn’t think it would be good for your recovery to have me there mucking things up.”

The sky outside was already beginning to darken, the hours of daylight being swallowed up as easily as plankton into a blue whale’s mouth.

“I wish you would have come.”

He held her gaze. “Me too.”

Tilting her head back to stare up at the ceiling, she took a few moments to gather her thoughts.

“So you know I got hurt. I’d had a great season after”—she straightened and gestured between the two of them—“after us. I actually had a real shot at Nationals and who knows from there. Maybe some international stuff. Things were looking really good. I was never swimming faster, never had been in better shape.” She took another sip. “And that continued over the summer. I swam every day and worked two jobs since my scholarship didn’t cover me for the non-school months. But that meant I didn’t get out of shape and had an okay amount of money saved by the time school started.”

“Then you got hurt?”

She nodded. “It was in the first competition of the season. I felt something tear but kept swimming because it was in the final stretch of the race. I won.” CeCe shook her head. “Turns out if I hadn’t pushed through the pain, I might still have a racing career.”

Colin took the empty glass from her hand and set it on the table. “You couldn’t have known that.”

She shrugged. “A fact I understand now, but one that also haunted me for a good long while.”

He pointed at the stars beginning to appear in the sky. They were so bright this far out from civilization. “How long did it haunt you, sweetheart?”

“Frankly?”

A nod.

“It still bothers me,” she said with a huff. “But you can’t go back and change the past. The worst part was my parents never came, never called. Hell, they never even sent a card. Their only daughter got really hurt, needed a pretty serious surgery followed by physical therapy, but they never once came to check on me.”

Blue eyes flashed. “That’s fucked up.”

“But that’s the way they are.” Her voice was resigned. “It just took until that moment for me to truly understand they would never change. And, truthfully, I’d broken something in them too. I wasn’t their perfect daughter. I didn’t stay close to home and marry the man they’d chosen. I wanted to travel and draw and swim fast.” She laced her fingers together, pressing them to her heart. “I wanted to live my own life and that would never ever be compatible with their expectations.”

“It’s their loss,” Colin said fiercely, brushing back a strand of her ponytail that was lying around her throat. “I know I’m far from innocent in this, that I fucked up royally, but I don’t know how a parent could do that to a child.”

“I know.” She laughed, and it sounded broken. “We both really got screwed in the parental department. I mean, I got disowned because I wanted to take a trip I was paying for myself and then swim competitively a few states away from home and your mother—”

Colin straightened, eyes going flinty and cold. “What did my mother do to you?”

“Well, it was more to you.” CeCe opened and closed her mouth. Damn, she hadn’t wanted to go about it this way. She didn’t want to hurt him and her next words would definitely hurt him. “Though I guess you could say it was to us—”

The trill of her phone cut through her words.

She reached for it.

He stopped her. “Don’t.”

“I have to.” She slipped her fingers from beneath his. “It’s Hunter’s ringtone and I haven’t talked to him yet.”

Colin sighed, chin dropping to his chest. “Then, of course, you have to answer it.” His tone was sincere, absent of sarcasm, and that settled some of the raging storm inside of her.

Cecilia swiped across the screen, a smile breaking out on her lips when Hunter’s little face appeared on her phone.

Saved by FaceTime.

That was a new one.