“The only mistake I ever made was falling in love with you.”

It was like she had hit him again, the way he jerked back as the tears made their way down his beautifully sculpted face. It made her sick that she thought he was beautiful, gorgeous. But that was what he was: a playboy. He would never change.

“If you walk out that f**king door without talking this over with me first, we’re done.”

She bent down, picking up the bags that she had left before looking up at him with all the anger and hurt in the world in her eyes.

“No Shea, we were done when you kissed my mother f**king sister.”

With that, she was gone, and even though it hurt so much she couldn’t breathe, she knew she would never see him again.

Chapter 31

Elli missed the way Shea slept.

It was one of the main things she missed. As the tears threaten to come down her cheeks, all she could do was think about the many mornings she had woken up, and stared at him. His long eyelashes would touch the top of his cheeks, his lips would be parted some, and his breathing would be so even that Elli could only think that he was dreaming about something good. When she would get bored, she would run her finger down from his nose, across his top lip to his bottom, and giggle when he would purse his lips. He would always wake up, glaring at her, but he wasn’t really mad. He would wrap her up in his arms, kissing her long and hard before letting her go.

He loved her.

Those mornings were what Elli was thinking about as she stood in the middle of Starbucks, a block over from the arena, where she was working that day. Out of all the things she could be thinking about, she was thinking of Shea. She should be thinking about the paperwork that was accumulating at the studio and in her office at the Assassins’ headquarters. But nope, she was thinking about her ex-boyfriend.

Like always.

When her phone rang, she rolled her eyes, hoping it wasn’t the same person that clouded her brain. It wasn’t, it was her mother.

“Hello?”

“Hello darling, are you coming to dinner with me and Victoria tonight?”

“I don’t know, Mother. I’m not really feeling it and I still don’t want to be around Victoria.”

“Oh, come on. You’ve been weird ever since that womanizing ex-boyfriend of yours kissed her. Get over him. It’s been, what, two months? And Victoria has apologized profusely, even though she shouldn’t have to. It was him, for goodness sakes.”

“I loved him,” Elli said as the tears rushed to her eyes, but she wasn’t going to let them fall, she was in the middle of a damn Starbucks for goodness sakes.

She would wait until she got home.

“So? He was trash; tattoos everywhere, he didn’t know how to dress, he wasn’t good enough for you. You’re lucky you found him out before y’all got married, or something crazy.”

“I just hate what he did to me, and coming onto my sister out of all people. It just blows my mind. He wasn’t the guy I thought he was.”

“Again, he was trash. So come on, let’s go to dinner. At the club! You can stay at the house tonight instead of that crummy house of yours.”

Elli rolled her eyes before saying, “I’ll call you this afternoon.”

“You better, sweetheart. Bye.”

“Bye.” Elli hung up the phone. When her mother’s call went off and the picture of Shea laying in the snow making a snow angel came up, it felt like she was being punched in the chest. It happened every time she looked at it. She knew she should take the picture off, but she couldn’t. She missed him. He had sent it to her the day of the first snow fall with the caption saying:

I miss you like the snow misses an angel.

Elli couldn’t believe it; she set it to her wallpaper and put herself through the torture every time she turned her phone on. She missed him so much, but her pride kept her from returning the nonstop calls the first month, and the random texts she still got from him. She just couldn’t do it. He broke her heart, and no matter how much she missed him, she couldn’t bring herself to talk to him. She wouldn’t go through what she went through with Justin.

She wouldn’t, couldn’t.

“That’s a cool picture. Your boyfriend?” Elli jumped in surprise, turning to a very tall, very handsome man. Elli looked down at her phone, then back up at the stranger.

“Um, no. Thanks, it is a good picture.”

“Well, you have impeccable taste in photography,” he said with a sly grin, “My name is Joseph Rinehart.”

He held out his hand, and Elli took it in hers.

“Elli Fisher, nice to meet you.”

He continued to grin at her.

“The pleasure is all mine, Ms. Fisher. Do you work around here?”

“I do, I own the Time Standing Still studio on West End, but today I’m working over at the Assassins’ headquarters.”

“Hard working woman. Would you have time to date?” he said with a suggesting grin, “Me, if you’re wondering.”

Shit. Elli didn’t see that coming. She thought the guy wanted to talk about photography as they waited in line, but no. He was hitting on her, and he had a damn wedding ring on! With disgust, her smile fell, and she turned back around. Being hit on was not what she wanted at the moment. The guy said something, but Elli wasn’t listening as she put her headphones in, turning on her iPod. The way guys openly hit on Elli ever since she and Shea had broken up, never ceased to amaze her.