Third Chances (Men Of Manhattan #2) - Ivy Smoak Page 0,96

"My bracelet. I think I dropped it on the path. I need it, it's important."

"Okay. I'll go look."

I moved off his lap and watched him walk back where he had come from. I had told him not to follow me. I had asked him to leave me alone. What was he doing here? But I didn't really care why he was here, I just cared that he was. Maybe it was selfish of me, but when I was with him I didn't feel alone. In a few minutes, he came walking back up to me.

"Is this it?" He held up my gold bracelet between his fingers.

I breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Rob." I wanted to cry all over again.

He sat back down in the mud and held the bracelet toward me. I lifted up my wrist and let him secure it back on. I put my wrist onto my lap and looked down at the bracelet. Derek would have been mad at me for putting so much meaning into this bracelet. He didn't care about material things at all. But it was the last present he had ever given me. I could picture him smiling as he handed me the box on my birthday. It was my most prized possession. It was also the last time I had ever seen him.

"I'm sorry about last night," I said. "I didn't get to apologize earlier. I was projecting my own problems..."

"It's okay." He pulled me onto his lap again.

I looked up at him. His eyes were full of understanding and I wasn't sure why. "It's not okay. But I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. I was acting like a crazy person."

He kissed the top of my head and started to run his hand up and down my back again. "I'm sorry too."

"You don't have anything to be sorry for. So you had a threesome right before we met? I'm not allowed to be mad about that."

"You're allowed to feel however you feel. It didn't mean anything though. It was just one of those stupid cards. I didn't know I'd be running into you. And if I could take it back, I would. I don't ever want to hurt you. Daphne, I really like you."

"I really like you too."

His smile was so endearing.

I wiped the remaining tears off my cheeks. "I didn't come to your room earlier to have sex with you."

"I kind of figured that." He smiled again. "But I'm glad it happened.

Me too. I shook my head. "But I shouldn't have let it. I'm not really in a place where I can be in a relationship. I'm still trying to figure out how to be happy on my own."

"Have you ever thought that maybe we can find happiness together?"

That's what I wanted. I really, really wanted that with him. I shook my head. "I can't."

"Because of your brother?"

"How do you know about my brother?"

"Alina told me."

I sighed. "She doesn't understand."

"I think she understands more than you give her credit for. But I'd like to hear about him from you."

"There's nothing to tell. He's gone. End of story."

"I know that isn't true. Tell me about him. Tell me what happened."

I looked down at the ground. "I loved him so much." I bit the inside of my cheek. I wasn't going to start crying again. "He was two years older than me. I looked up to him my whole life. He wanted to come here, you know? It was his dream to travel. He had posters of Costa Rica all over his room. And he had been saving up money so he could travel the world. He was so excited about it." This was too hard, talking about the good times. "But he was bad at holding a job. He was in and out of rehab a lot. It's strange, though, he always seemed good to me. He was good at hiding it from me, I guess. I think he was trying to protect me." I shrugged. "But he wasn't fine. He died of an overdose a year and a half ago. Right before my last semester of college."

"I'm sorry."

I shook my head. "And you were right, you know. I talked to him on the phone the night before it happened. He told me he had slipped up, but he said he was good. He promised he was okay. I always believed him. And I believed him then. If I had just looked at the signs, I would have seen it.