“Certain … that he didn’t find the photo shoot?” Daisy asks, looking bewildered that I’m even confirming this with her. “Of course he didn’t. You should’ve seen him after you ran off—he was … Well, let’s just say that I don’t think you should be worried about anyone spreading those photos around.”

The wasps in my head finally go still. It had been instinct to distrust him. Instinct to assume the worst. If you were to suffer a blow to your stomach every time you walked down a road, you would automatically start tensing before you’ve even taken the first step, bracing for the pain. You wouldn’t dare believe that one day, you’ll be able to walk right down, and someone will be waiting at the end of it, smiling gently up at you.

“I need to talk to him,” I say, but not before I pull Daisy into a tight hug. She’s so much shorter than I am that I’m scared of crushing her, but she hugs me back just as hard, pressing her head to my shoulder. “Thank you,” I whisper. “For coming after me. For being on my side.”

“I’ll always be on your side,” she says, and I believe it.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Our itinerary doesn’t really plan for private conversations after you dramatically run off into the night.

I’m forced to chew on my words all the way from the final scene of the performance to the bus ride back to the hotel. But instead of heading back to my room, I follow Cyrus to his.

“Yeah, I just remembered I needed to go … buy another winery,” Oliver says when he sees me enter, and he promptly disappears, leaving the two of us alone.

Cyrus stares at me in the silence, and I have no idea what he’s thinking, where or how this will end, so I speak first. “I made a snap assumption back there,” I begin, shifting my weight from one foot to the other. “The wrong assumption. I—I didn’t even give you a chance to explain, and I should have.”

“Leah,” he says, so tenderly I think I might burst into tears again. “You’ve considered me your enemy for years, and I’ll never be able to make up for what happened. You thought what any person would have thought. I wouldn’t expect you to go from hating me to trusting me completely right away—I would want the chance to win your trust slowly, bit by bit, if I had the honor. I’m honestly …” He releases a shaky breath, and for the first time tonight, I see the rush of emotions in his eyes. “I’m honestly shocked that you came back. Shocked, and very, very glad. I didn’t think you ever would.”

It feels like someone’s grabbed hold of my heart and pulled.