Sporting (Unleashed Romance #3) - Kylie Gilmore Page 0,60

a busboy mopping the back dining room.

“First, I’m really sorry I didn’t tell you for so long,” I say. “In the beginning, it was so new and fragile. My first serious relationship.” My voice cracks. “I didn’t expect that. Eli sort of sprang up on me.” I blink back tears. “He kidnapped me for a weekend getaway for our first date so we could get to know each other.”

“What! He kidnapped you?”

“Yeah, it was crazy. He handcuffed me and everything and carried me out to his car. Next thing I know, we’re speeding out of town on our way to New Hampshire.”

She leans back in her chair, shaking her head. “Just when I think he’s on the straight and narrow, he pulls something like this. So you’re telling me he was the instigator of all this.”

“I don’t want to put it all on him. I was drawn to him from the moment we had our fender bender, but I wasn’t going to do anything about it because you warned me off, and part of me agreed, I was too damaged to have a relationship. I thought he’d only get hurt in the end, and I could never do casual with someone I’ve known most of my life—”

“Not to mention you’d have to see him around town.”

“Exactly, but, Syd, he made it so easy. He’s so warm and fun. He was everything I needed when I needed it, and somehow I found a way to meet him halfway.”

She frowns. “Audrey knew.”

I grab her arm. “I wasn’t trying to exclude you. Well, I was, but only so I wouldn’t lose you in the process. Anyway, Audrey is the one who helped him kidnap me. She said the only way he could get to know me was if we were away together for an extended time.”

“Huh.” She cocks her head. “She might’ve been right about that.”

“She was!”

She shakes her head. “I’m still pissed I’m the last to know.”

“I swear I’ll never keep another secret from you again. And I do have feelings for him. Deep feelings. I love him.” I bite my trembling lower lip. “I haven’t even told him that yet.”

She gasps.

I nod, my vision blurring through tears. “It’s true. Can you believe it finally happened for me? I don’t think it would’ve happened for anyone else ever. Eli was just safe enough, just persistent enough, just…everything I ever wanted.”

“Jenna! Oh my God!” She throws her arms around me in a hug. “My little brother cured you of your awful relationship history!”

I pull back. “Not so little anymore.”

She smiles. “You’re right. I screwed up. I love you, and I should’ve been more supportive. I just didn’t realize you had real feelings for him, but that’s not the point. I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry too.”

She sighs. “I need to let go a bit more where Eli and Caleb are concerned. I still make Caleb text me when he travels for work so I know he arrived safely.”

I nudge her shoulder. “Just don’t get involved in his love life.”

She lifts her palms. “I’ve learned my lesson. Besides, Caleb has no interest in a relationship. I feel more sorry for the women who fall for him.” She grabs my hands, her voice fierce. “I’m so sorry this came between us. I was being way too overprotective. You did the right thing going behind my back because otherwise I would’ve been all over you, stomping on your little fledgling seedling of a relationship, and now it bloomed into love. That’s all I ever wanted for him. For both of you. I just didn’t know you wanted that for yourself.”

“I do now. Eli wanted to tell you about us, he insisted on it, and I kept saying I would and put it off. I was so scared of losing you.”

“I was an idiot,” she says magnanimously.

I smile. “If you’re okay with it, I’d like to try to get back together with him. We broke up, and then he tried to make up, and I was too upset about you and me—”

“Go! Please, get out of here and win your man back.” She stands and gestures broadly for me to leave.

I stand, a little uncertain. “I’m not sure how to do that exactly.”

She gives me a little shove. “Tell him you love him. That’s the important part.”

I walk out, feeling much lighter than when I walked in.

But on the drive home, my thoughts are tangled, going round and round about what made me and Eli break up twice and how