Rewind It Back (Windy City, #5)

by Liz Tomforde

“I’m lactose intolerant.” Her face morphs into confusion at my sudden change in subject. “What?” “Dairy.” I take another bite of my steak. “It fucks me right up. Sometimes I take a pill beforehand and sometimes I just raw-dog it and deal with the consequences.” “Did you just say you raw-dog it when referring to your dairy intake?”

I write the number thirteen on my finished mixtape, signing it with an “H” and a heart. You know, for Hallie Hart. Heart like Hart. Anyway, it’s my new signature and I love it.

“Hey, Rio?” Hands in his pockets, he perks up. “Yeah?” “I missed you too.”

His attention moves back to my mouth, once again asking the question, “You single, Hal?” I finally give him the long-awaited answer, nodding to tell him yes. “Good.” He takes a slow predatorial step towards me, tone sharp and leaving no room for question. “Because we aren’t fucking friends.”

“Well, you are the client. Whatever you say goes. I’m here to give excellent customer service.” I lift an interested brow. “Not that kind of service. Get your mind out of the gutter, DeLuca.”

“I understand why you’re hesitant or uninterested,” he whispers. “I’m not going to push you to want me. But I am going to be here, waiting, if you ever decide you want to try again. I’m not going anywhere this time.”

“I love that dress on you, baby.” “Thank you. It’s⁠—” “Take it off.”

“Fine.” I kiss her again. “So would now be a good time to also tell you that I bought you a car?”

I lean my chin on my arm that’s resting on him, a painfully big smile on my mouth. “So, you like really like me, huh?” I tease quietly for only him to hear. “I think we both know it’s a little deeper than that, even if we’re still pretending it’s one of those unspoken things.” He turns to press a quick kiss to my lips. “And I have for fifteen years, Hal. You’ve had me hooked since the day you became the girl next door.”

I spent six years missing a huge piece of who I am because that’s how integral she is in my life. That’s how embedded she is in the fabric that makes me me.

I’ve heard the claim that you don’t know what you’ve got until you’ve lost it, but I knew what I had. It made losing us that much more unbearable.

She’s everything I’ve ever wanted, everything I’ve been looking for. Everything I was so desperate to find because I had already found her once and knew she was missing from my life.