“Oh god, what did she say?”

“She seemed happy at first.”

“At first?” Her voice sounds hesitant, and I squeeze my eyes shut because if I don’t, I’m going to start bawling.

“Yeah.” I sniff. “And then I told her my real last name, and she slammed the door in my face.”

She sighs, and I count to five before she speaks again. “Okay, walk me through it.”

I shrug, even though she can’t see me. “There’s nothing really to walk through. I told her everything, and now she hates me.”

“All of it?”

“Well, she guessed a lot of it herself, but yeah.”

“Oh, Ridley.”

“I just couldn’t do it anymore,” I say, dragging a hand through my still-wet hair. “I care about her too much to lie.”

“Do you love her?” Gray asks, and there’s no judgment there, just a question.

“I don’t know.”

“That’s a hell of a reveal for ‘I don’t know.’”

“Yeah. So how do I fix it?”

Gray’s quiet again, and for the first time, I wonder if maybe she doesn’t have the answer, but that’s impossible. Gray has had the solution to everything since I was born.

“Grand sweeping gesture?” she says finally. “It works in the movies.”

“Are you being serious?”

“No. Don’t actually do that. Just try to talk to her, if she’ll let you. And try to rebuild her trust. And stop spying on her store.”

“About that. I’m actually not. It turns out I suck at screwing people over. No wonder I’m the black sheep of the family.”

“Wow, thanks.”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” I say, even though I kind of did. “But yeah, I’ve been sending fake reports too. I’d never tell Dad, but I did find out one thing that—”

“Don’t tell me about it either.”

I stare down at my feet, the reality of the situation washing over me again, making everything seem impossible. I swallow hard. “What do I do if she won’t talk to me?”

“Then you back off and give her space,” she says softly. “Either she comes around on her own, or you chalk it up to a lesson learned.”

“That’s it? You’re telling me to give up?”

“It’s not giving up; it’s respecting what she wants, which you should have done in the first place by being honest with her. I want this to work out for you so bad, but what you did was beyond reprehensible, even if I get the reasons why you did it. Just be prepared, okay? Sometimes you can’t fix things once they’re broken. If she doesn’t want to talk, then you need to back off.”

“Yeah.” I swallow hard and don’t mention the fact that Peak’s already been ignoring my texts.