Page 69

Ares is driving, and I settle into the front passenger seat, for once not feeling awkward about sitting next to Ares in a small car. Callan is behind me with Tate next to him, and the atmosphere in the car is more relaxed than it has been since we all ended up together on this trip.

Something brushes against my shoulder, and I realize that Callan is sitting forward so he can brush my hair over my shoulder. He has a marker in his hand, and is eyeing the back of my neck like he wants to put designs there, the same way he did on my arm.

“Is this okay?” he asks, his voice a low rumble this close to me.

I shiver, but the feeling is nice, so I nod. “Sure.”

It’s easy to zone out a bit while Callan does his doodles and Ares gets us back onto the highway. I think about what Tate said right before we left. About how any man who wouldn’t make sure I was satisfied wasn’t worth my time.

I haven’t been with all that many people, but I can definitely say that until things went bad between us, Ares was the only person who had ever made me feel treasured or worshipped. At least until now. Between our breakup and whatever I’m doing with these three men, dating has just been one bad experience after another.

I’m not quite sure what to do with that.

I glance over at Ares, who looks relaxed and calm as he drives. He has both hands on the wheel, his eyes alert, but his posture is easy like he’s unbothered for the first time in a while. I can’t help but think about how he used to be the person I thought I knew best in the world, but so much time has passed since then. He could be completely different now. I find myself wondering what his life has been in the time we’ve been apart.

Ares looks at me, catching me watching him. “What?” he asks, arching an eyebrow.

“Nothing, just… I don’t know. I was thinking about how long it’s been. I feel like I don’t really know who you are anymore.”

His brow furrows. “What do you mean?”

“Not in a bad way!” I hurry to assure him. “I just want to know more about who you are now. What you’ve been doing.”

“Oh,” he says. “I mean, it hasn’t been all that exciting.”

I give him a flat look. “Ares, you just wrapped up a run in one of the most successful TV series of the last few years. I’d say that’s pretty exciting.”

He gives me a crooked smile and shrugs a little. “Sure, if you’re into that sort of thing.”

“You’re impossible.”

“Okay, okay. Really, it’s been a lot of the same for the last eight years. You heard the guys talking about some of the shitty made for TV movies I did when I was first getting started.”

I smile, thinking about the Halloween snowman. “Yeah, those sounded… interesting.”

“That’s a word for it. I don’t know, all I knew was I didn’t want to go back home, you know? And if I was going to stay in Atlanta, then I needed to have work to keep money coming in. So I auditioned for everything I could. Commercials, made for TV movies, pilots, whatever. Any time a casting call went out and I fit the bill, I showed up. It started paying off after a year or so, but the work wasn’t that good.”

“Yeah, I can’t imagine some of those movies made you much money.”

“No, but it was a way to get my name out there. People remembered me and they had connections, so it worked out. I clawed my way out of the stupid holiday movies and terrible shows that got canceled after one season. Some never even made it onto TV.”

“Really?”

Ares nods. “Yeah, there was this show I shot maybe eight episodes for a few years back. Really weird premise, but you could tell the writer was passionate about it. I was basically playing a dude who had this condition where sometimes he would wake up and just have forgotten his whole life up to that point. No idea what his name was or what he was doing, wherever he was. So he’d pick up and start a new life every time. Only then it turned out that he had three or four families who were all looking for him, and he had to try to find a way to explain that he didn’t know these people.”

“Even though he did?”

“I mean, yeah, but he didn’t know he knew them.”

I frown. “So was it a comedy or…?”

“No, it was actually a medical drama. The first few episodes were setting up the dude’s life and condition and then this world renowned doctor was supposed to come in and start figuring out why this was happening.”

“That’s wild, honestly.”

“Not even close to the wildest script I’ve read over the years, believe me.”

We both laugh at that, and it feels good to be doing this. Talking and sharing a laugh without it being tense and teetering on the edge of tipping into an argument. I haven’t felt this relaxed talking to Ares since we were much younger, when things were still good between us.