Rewind It Back (Windy City, #5)

by Liz Tomforde

Here’s to the 10 characters, 5 couples, 3 teams, 2 sets of siblings, and 1 amazing friend group that changed my life. This one is dedicated to you, the readers. Thank you for hanging out in Chicago with me.

“I was asking what kind of rings the wives from the team have.” She swerves the conversation right back to where I don’t want it to be, but I keep eating and refuse to answer. “Do any of them have to work?” she tries instead. “Probably not.”

Shes alredy giving me bad vibes

Because she’s not her. No one else has been.

He freezes in place, and I watch as both recognition and disbelief dawn on him. His lips slightly part, those green eyes tracking every inch of my face, and I try to look away, but I can’t. I’m too locked in, too focused on the man in front of me who is hardly recognizable from the boy I once knew.

Ahhh

Because I may have loved Rio DeLuca once, but I don’t anymore.

Im sorry what?!

“It’s your birthday?”

“Yep. March eighth. When is your birthday?”

“August t...

“What are you listening to?”

“I don’t know the name. I just picked a song to remember the moment.”

“I pick a song when something cool or important happens so I can remember it. Then when I want to relive a moment, I rewind it back and start the song from the beginning.”

Roll credits also this is where he got it from

God, she looked good. She always looked good, though, so that wasn’t much of a surprise.

But she’s not the one who needs a shield. I am. It may have been six years ago, but I haven’t forgotten what happened.

Wtf happened

“And say what?” She exhales a laugh. “‘Hey, remember me? That girl you hate. Yeah, I moved to Chicago! Let’s get drinks!’ It’s been six years, Rio. You don’t own this city, and I don’t owe you a phone call. And besides, even if I did, I lost your number years ago.”

ohhh the tea

We were always careful with each other until we weren’t.

Nooooo my heart aches and i dont even know why

Regardless of our history, I never wanted to see her hurting.

She hurt you.

WTF

I haven’t spoken Hallie’s name in six years, but she has been living rent free in my mind while I try to replicate what we had before everything went to shit.

“The guy you were with tonight.” I slowly shift back to face her. “Who was he?”

“Not your job to worry about.”

“Lose him.”

Ahhhhh

Rio DeLuca can go ahead and fuck himself.

Im dead

The four members of the Rhodes family started coming to Sunday dinners here at the Shay house and thus formed our little Chicago found family of nine.

Yes, nine. Because everyone is paired up except for me.

Awww rio

No one here knows I’ve been in love before. No one knows that though I had a front-row seat to watch them all find their person over the years, I had found mine long before any of them.

Yup this book is gonna make me cry

Though Hallie and I have a sordid history, it’s still our history, and everything in me wants to keep it that way. Regardless that I got hurt, I don’t want my friends to have that first impression of her. I don’t want anything to skew their opinion of her.

I take my time choosing a song from the track list because I know this is a moment I’ll want to remember, and whichever song I choose is going to be one I put on next year’s mixtape because I’ll want to rewind it back and play it on repeat for a long time to come.

“Well, maybe that was the first time you were told, but I know for a fact it wasn’t the first time someone liked you.”

14 year old Rio has me crying

“But you hate me, remember?”

“I don’t hate you. Hurt, yes. But I could never hate you, Hallie.”

It’s the kind of relationship I want to find one day, and if I’m being honest, I think I may have already.

I’ve never looked at a girl the way I look at Hallie. I’ve never had the kind of friendship we have with anyone else. I’ve never even considered dating someone who wasn’t her.

Because yes, I have a huge freaking crush on the girl and want to know about all the songs that represent important moments in her life.

“I’ve never asked you why you picked that number in the first place. You’ve been number eighty-three for as long as I’ve known you.”

“Well, I was ten years old when I got to choose my number for the first time, and I didn’t know what to choose, so I picked my favorite day. I thought I was so cool picking my birthday. Eighty-three. August third. It’s stuck ever since. Can’t imagine having a different number now.”

And now he’s 38… march 8th.. as in Hallie’s birthday!! Stop if that’s the case I’m obsessed and will immediately start crying

I recognize it instantly. It’s hard not to when I just heard it today. It’s the same song we listened to in my truck.

“This was a last-minute addition,” she admits quietly.

“And what happened that was so important when you heard it?”

“It was the first time I realized that you may feel the same way about me as I’ve always felt about you.”

Ahhh stop im obsessed

Anger towards me, that her life has been harder than it was supposed to be, harder than I told her it would be. Anger that she’s working two jobs and brutal hours to make ends meet because I left and didn’t take her with me when I promised I would.

There is more to this than just this. You said you hated her…..

“Dad.” My tone is flat because he knows as well as I do why we had a “falling-out.” “You, of all people, know how hard those years were. He chose not to be around.”

“Hallie, he didn’t know.”

What does that mean

“Well, you might not want to hear this, but I’ve always liked Rio and I’m glad you two found your way back to each other, even if it is just as friends.”

Right? Four kids, Hal. This seems dangerous. I need you.

I missed him. Plain and simple, I missed Rio DeLuca.

Rio takes a deep, centering breath. “I missed you, Hallie,” he whispers into my hair.

But alarms are going off in my head. Alarms telling me to pull back and create distance. Alarms telling me that we wouldn’t be able to come back from this. Alarms reminding me that though we’re getting along again, I’m not ready to forgive or forget about the day he left or the painful years after. And I don’t think he is either.

“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.”

AHHHHH STOP RN