Starless Nights (Hale Brothers Series Book 2) by Kathryn Andrews Page A

starts pacing back and forth in front of the couch.
    “I don’t know, he just didn’t look like himself. His usual spark was gone. He looked tired and stressed.”
    “Maybe he is. I wonder why he didn’t tell us he was here.” Ali walks over to the window and looks out, although I doubt she is actually looking at anything.
    “Matt came with him and he said that he just wanted to get settled in.” The hurt on her face is evident and now I feel bad. Here I had been thinking that she was keeping this from me, when really he was keeping this from all of us. Not that he would ever tell me but I would have liked to of known that he was in town.
    “I wonder if Drew knows,” she says, more to herself than me.
    “Wouldn’t he have told you? I got the impression from Beau that he hasn’t told anyone. Charlie came in and met him.”
    She turns back to me and her face is lit up with interest. “How did that go?”
    “Of course Charlie acted like he didn’t know who he was, but he did. It was awkward.”
    “Poor Beau.” The worry lines are back.
    “What do you mean poor Beau? Did you forget . . . he is the one who left me?” I can’t sit still anymore so I get up and start pacing around the room too.
    “I still don’t understand why you never asked him why he left.”
    “Because it doesn’t matter.” Ali’s watching me closely. It does matter. I know this and so does she.
    “Come on, I’m going to make you a margarita.”
    Sitting outside on her little balcony, my heart races. Ali left to take a phone call from her father and now here I sit staring out at the surrounding skyline of New York City. This city always seemed so big to me, but now that I know he’s here, it feels so small.
    Taking a sip of the margarita, I think back to the one and only time I have ever been drunk.
     

     
    Grant, a friend of Beau’s, is throwing one of his infamous parties and this one is to celebrate the end of the school year. It is the beginning of the summer before my senior year, almost to the day of my return, one year prior.
    I don’t really want to go to the party but Chase, my cousin, convinced me that it would be fun. And it is, until about half way through the evening. Every school has that one group of guys and one group of girls, that no matter what, they sit at the top. Of course Beau, Drew, and their friends are those guys; but the girls are Cassidy, Lisa and their friends.
    They are all sitting together and laughing and as the minutes tick by, Lisa gets closer and closer to Beau. There are always rumors about Beau and Drew with some girl or another, but this is the first time that I am seeing it up close and personal. The margaritas, which are the drink of the evening, are going down a little too easily.
    At some point in the evening, I wander inside to go to the bathroom. The door isn’t closed all the way so I push it open only to find Lisa sitting on the counter with her legs and arms wrapped around Beau.
    They didn’t hear the door open and the way they are kissing breaks every piece of my heart. A noise escapes me, both of them jerk their heads my way, and Beau’s eyes lock with mine. I’m certain that I look like a deer in headlights but I am frozen and can’t move.
    Beau doesn’t say anything, he’s just stares at me.
    Beside him, Lisa starts snapping her fingers. “Earth to Leila,” she drawls out in a sarcastic tone.
    My eyes skip to her.
    “We’re kind of busy here. Can you leave?” Complete distaste drips off of her words.
    My eyes jump back to Beau’s. My chin trembles. Tears fill my eyes and his brows furrow.
    Why?
    Why did I have to see this? Maybe this is what I needed, the final nail in the coffin to make me move past him, this—this feeling of hope I carry around for him. All this time, all these years, there really has been no point.
    “Sorry.” That’s all I can get out. One tear falls and Beau’s breathing picks up. I can’t tell if he looks angry or concerned. It doesn’t