I looked at Autumn, and she shook her head. When I turned back to her father, he was looking at me expectantly. “Sorry, sir. If Autumn doesn’t want me to leave, I’m staying.” I set the coolers on the ground, figuring it best to make peace. I extended my hand, stepping forward. “Donovan Decker. Nice to meet you.”

Her father looked at my hand like he was considering not shaking it. But eventually he clasped it and grumbled something.

When I moved back beside Autumn, her shoulders slumped. “What do you want, Dad?”

“I’m getting married in two weeks.”

“I’m aware. I received the fancy invitation in the mail.”

“Well, then, why didn’t you respond?”

“Because I figured if I responded the way I wanted to respond, you’d show up at my door.”

“How many years are you going to be upset about me moving on? Your mother would want me to be happy.”

“This has nothing to do with Mom. Don’t drag her into this. And you’ve moved on seven times in the last fifteen years.” She turned to me and tapped her pointer to her lips. “Or maybe it’s eight times. I haven’t seen him in a few months. A lot can happen…”

“Don’t be disrespectful,” her father barked.

Autumn shook her head. “Go home, Dad.”

“Will you be at the wedding?” He took a deep breath and reined in the attitude, speaking with a softer, gentler voice. “It would mean a lot to me.”

Autumn frowned. “Will Silas be there?”

“Of course not. You know I wouldn’t do that to you.”

“No, I don’t know that.”

“Autumn, please come.”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. I’ll think about it, okay?”

Her father pursed his lips, but said nothing more. He walked over to Autumn and kissed her cheek. “Thank you.”

“It’s late,” she said. “I should go in.”

Her father nodded. He offered a vague wave in my direction, and then he was back in his flashy yellow car.

I picked up the coolers, and we walked to the entrance to her building in silence. The elevator ride up was quiet, too. When we got to her door, she fished her keys from her purse and turned to me.

“I’m sorry about that.”

“Nothing to be sorry about. If you met my mother, you’d understand why I thought that interaction was pretty damn pleasant.”

Autumn smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes.

“You okay?” I asked.

She nodded. “He just…I don’t know. He’s got a warped sense of priority sometimes.”

“I take it from what you said, you don’t like one of your dad’s friends…Silas?”

“Silas was his business partner.”

“Not a fan?”

“Nope.”

“Something happen between you two?”

She shook her head. “Not between me and Silas. I dated his son for four and a half years. Things…ended over Christmas break of my first year in law school.”

I waited for her to say more, but she didn’t. But then something dawned on me.

“That’s right around the time you also started to have career-decision doubts, wasn’t it?”

Autumn looked down. “I had a lot of doubts that year.” She took a deep breath and blew it out with a forced smile. “I should go in. It’s getting late, and I have an appointment early tomorrow. You can just leave the coolers here. I’ll bring them inside. I’m going to return them to my neighbor tomorrow anyway.”

I hated to leave, especially when she was clearly feeling down, but I thought we’d made a lot of progress the last few days and didn’t want to screw things up by not giving her space. So I nodded. “Okay. But open the door and go in before I take off.”

She smiled sadly. “You’re like a bodyguard.”

“Can never be too careful.”

Autumn unlocked her door, and I slid the two coolers inside. She held the door open after walking in. “Goodnight, Donovan.”

“Goodnight, Red.”

I waited until I heard the lock click closed before I left. On the drive home, I thought back through all the unexpected events of the evening. I’d found out the kid I’d hired to water my plants hadn’t killed one after all, a certain little redhead had stolen it. Autumn had also dropped a bomb on the car ride home—she wasn’t seeing Blake anymore. Then there was her father, who was pretty much what I’d expected from the limited things she’d told me. But even with all that, the thing I couldn’t stop wondering about was what the hell had happened during her first year of law school.

CHAPTER 21

* * *

Autumn

Six years ago

“God, it feels so good to be out with you guys.” I leaned my head on my friend Anna’s shoulder as we walked from the field to the parking lot. We’d just spent the afternoon watching an outdoor concert with a bunch of friends I hadn’t seen since law school started. I’d been accepted at two of my top three choices, but decided to stay home and go to Yale, my Dad’s alma mater—and also where Braden had gone.

Anna tugged my hair. “You should try doing it more often. We never see you.”

“I’m sorry. Law school has kept me busier than I thought.”

“It’s fine. I’m just teasing. How are things with you and Braden?”

“Good, I guess.”

“Uh-oh. Trouble in paradise.”

“Not really. Nothing I should complain about anyway. He just… I don’t know. He really wants to help me with law school. Braden is smart, so I should probably want all the help he wants to give, but I need to figure it out on my own sometimes. Like, a lot of the people from my cohort study together, and when I’ve mentioned that I think I’m going to the library to join them, he gets weird about it. I think it offends him that I don’t always want his help.”

“That’s because the man is crazy about you.”

I smiled. We’d arrived at the park after the start of the concert, so my car was parked on the grass almost all the way back at the entrance. When I looked around, I spotted a silver car that looked like Braden’s BMW. But the sun was blaring overhead, and I couldn’t see whether anyone was inside. I shielded my eyes, squinting, but I could only get a glimpse of a man’s profile, though it looked like it could be Braden. A few seconds later, the car pulled away. The concert had been packed, and we were in Greenwich, so BMWs were a dime a dozen… Yet something bugged me. It was the second time in the last few days that I’d thought I spotted a car that looked like Braden’s, but each time I’d gotten close enough to take a good look, the car had driven away.

“Earth to Autumn.”

I looked at my friend, who was staring at me expectantly. “I’m sorry. Did you say something?”

“I said, not everyone can have a guy who is crazy about them, but I did meet a guy last weekend who was crazy in bed.”

I’d totally zoned out there for a minute. “Oh wow. Tell me everything.”