I pulled open the passenger door to my SUV, but Bell didn’t get in, just kept staring at me, waiting for me to answer. “I’ve missed so much. There’s just a lot to catch up on.” I wasn’t sure what her reaction would be to that. I’d missed so much because of my own stupidity and selfishness. Maybe she wouldn’t want to spend the months I was sure it would take to catch me up on even just the important stuff.

Bell’s expression gentled, and she reached out to lay a hand on my biceps, the warmth of the touch filling me with a peace that had been missing for far too long. “We’ve got all the time in the world…Cupcake.” That devious smile was back. “Plus, I need to hear about all the famous people you’ve met. It sounds like you were friendly with at least a model or two.”

I winced. I hadn’t been a manwhore really, but if I’d needed companionship for a night or two, it hadn’t exactly been difficult to get. It had waned over the years, though. The encounters had become empty, and yet I hadn’t been willing to reach for more. Not even seeing my friends Austin and Liam find incredible women to settle down with had prompted me to take that risk. I cleared my throat. “Famous people are overrated.”

Bell laughed. “Oh, you jaded LA soul.”

I grinned and helped her up into the SUV. “It does get old after a while.” I’d gotten restless over the past year, as if everything that gave me a thrill about running my bars had grown dull. I needed a new challenge or something. I just had no idea what that might be.

Bell buckled herself in but turned to face me before I could shut the door. “Maybe you’ve just been missing the things that give life heart. It’s not always the big, glamorous accomplishments. Sometimes, it’s the everyday things that have meaning.”

She wasn’t wrong. And I had basically crapped all over that everyday stuff. My parents. My brother. The Catch. Bell. I’d let them all down. There was nothing I could do to change the past, but I sure as hell could do something about the future. “You always were wise beyond your years.”

Bell’s nose crinkled as she gave me a mock scowl. “Always looking at me as the baby.”

I closed her door, careful to do it gently. If there was one thing I was sure of in all of this, it was that I no longer saw Bell as anything childlike. It would be a hell of a lot easier if I did. I rounded the front of my vehicle and climbed inside. “So, where to?”