“I’m sad for her, honestly.” Bell gave voice to the thoughts forming in my head. “But I can be sad for her, feel empathy for her, and still not want her in my life.” Bell looked up, unshed tears glittering in her eyes. “It hurts too much. I can’t do it anymore. Not even these casual, polite conversations when we run into each other in town. It’s all so fake, and when the real stuff bubbles up like it did today, when her true colors show, it’s just too painful.”

I pulled her closer against me, pressing my lips to her temple and leaving them there for a moment, needing to say all the things she wasn’t ready to hear. “You’re allowed to choose yourself.”

A single tear tipped over, cascading down her cheek. “Am I?”

“You are and you should. You don’t have to punish yourself by letting them spew venom into your life.”

Bell pressed her cheek into my chest. “Every time I take a step back from them, I feel so damn guilty. But today was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Mom’s mind…it’s too twisted, she’s created this story to stoke her anger, to keep it burning, and I refuse to be a part of it.”

“Good.”

“You don’t think I’m a horrible human?”

I pressed my lips to Bell’s hair, that scent that was hers alone mixing with the sea air and giving me my peace. “I think you’re the best human I know.”

She let out a little laugh, the action sending pleasant vibrations into my chest. “Let’s not get crazy.”

We stayed like that for a long time. Bell’s cheek against my chest, her body wrapped in my arms, just listening to the waves crash into the shore. I soaked in everything I could: her smell, the feel of her pressed against me, the sound of her breathing barely audible against the backdrop of the waves.

“I missed you, Bell.”

“I’m right here.”

She’d been right here these past two weeks but still felt so damn far away. “Will you do me a favor?”

“Depends on what it is.”

I chuckled. “Stay with me for a while.”

Bell groaned. “I don’t know…”

“Please. I need this. To know you’re safe. That your parents won’t be able to show up unannounced and blindside you again—” My words cut off because I realized that all of the overprotective worry had gotten me nowhere with Bell. She didn’t want to be sheltered, protected. “Bell, I want you with me. In my life. In my space. Yes, I want to make sure you’re safe, but I also just want you close.”

Bell was quiet for a moment before she spoke. “People are going to talk.”

“Let them.”