I shake my head at the liar.
They walk away from us, but David looks over his shoulder. “Play nice.”
“After you,” Knox says, putting his arm out for me to walk first.
I gaze into his eyes before continuing. This is weird, and I’m suddenly overheating. As I walk through the house and into the living room, I fan my face because I’m flustered.
Nothing has changed. David has the same furniture they had when I was here last. I move toward a familiar family photo on the wall.
I chuckle. “Oh, I remember this photo. You and Kane are so young here.”
The photo is of the four of them. David and Audrey in the background and Knox and Kane in the front. The photo is professionally taken. Kane is missing teeth, so he must be around six years old, and his goofy smile makes me laugh. Knox looks so innocent here.
I turn to look back at Knox, who’s raking his hand through his thick black hair, wearing a thoughtful expression.
“Do you see much of your mom anymore? Is she still at your old holiday house?”
He shrugs nonchalantly. “I don’t have much to do with her. Kane talks to her more than me.”
“So you don’t see her?” I ask again.
“Once a year, if that. She doesn’t like to leave her house.”
I raise my eyebrows at the animosity in his voice.
It’s strange. Audrey used to be busy and managed so many things in our town, the town her family founded. Then she moved away and stopped having anything to do with anyone.
“What?” he asks.
“So much has changed. I think it’s going to take a while to get my head around it all.”
He moves to the sofa and sits, so I walk over and sit beside him. He inhales deeply. “You still wear the same perfume.”
My face burns.He remembers.
“Yes, I do. Mom said you’re in a motorcycle gang now.” I lean toward him. “Tell me about it.”
His eyes narrow. “It’s not a gang. It’s a motorcycle club.”
I cringe, hoping I didn’t disrespect him.Club, not gang, got it.
“Sorry.”
He doesn’t speak straight away, so I wait for him.
“A couple of us served together in the special forces. We wanted to make a safe place for men who were lost after returning home. I own land here in Crown Village, so we didn’t have to fork out money to buy a place. We set up here, and I’ve been here ever since.”
Even though he seems distant, it hurts me to think he was struggling when he returned home.
“You never came to see me.”
With as much as I tried, I couldn’t take away the disappointment in my voice. It still stings.
A sad smile curves his lips. “You were happier without me.”
I raise my hand to my bleeding heart because he just cut me wide open. “How do you know that?”
“I checked up on you.”
