“It’s addressed to my old house. The one my parents sold years ago.”
“Yeah.”
“You never sent it.”
His fingers tightened around his mug. “No. I didn’t.”
“Why?”
He exhaled slowly, his shoulders dropping. “Because I didn’t want to drag you into something you couldn’t come back from.”
I let out a sharp laugh. “You already dragged me into it. You broke me. From a distance.”
His eyes flicked shut like I’d reached out and slapped him across the face. Good. He deserved it.
“You could’ve told me the truth,” I said. “You could’ve explained. You could’ve given me a choice.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“There you go again,” I snapped. “Kingston Raines, making decisions for me like I’m some fragile doll who can’t handle reality.”
“I never said that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
He looked away first. He always had. Back then it was because he was terrified of the future. Now it was because he was terrified of himself.
“Scarlett,” he murmured, “you were seventeen.”
“I was in love.”
His jaw clenched.
“And I thought you were too,” I added, softer than I meant to.
He stared at the floor for a long beat, the muscles in his neck tight, his hands flexing like he wanted to punch something or hold something or touch me but didn’t dare.
“I was,” he finally said. “I still am.”
My breath caught. Pain, hot and electric, shot through me. I tightened my arms around my middle so I wouldn’t shake.
“Then why didn’t you let me fight for you?” I demanded. “Why did you decide I wasn’t worth telling the truth?”
“That’s not—” He raked a hand through his hair, a flash of the boy he used to be breaking through the hardened edges of the man he’d become. “That’s not how it was.”
“Then tell me how it was.” My voice cracked. “I deserve to know, Kingston.”
The fire crackled in the other room, and the wind howled outside. My heart pounded so loud it drowned everything else out.
“I can’t,” he whispered.
I froze. He couldn’t? Or he wouldn’t? Before I could ask, the lights overhead flickered once… twice… and died. The cabin plunged into darkness. A rush of panic surged up my spine. Storms never scared me, not really, but being snowed in with the only man from my past that had the power to break me and had already done it once? That scared the hell out of me.
Kingston covered the distance between us in a few long strides. “Scarlett, hey…” His voice was close, too close, butsomehow grounding. “It’s okay. I’ve got a generator and plenty of firewood. There’s also a backup heater in the bedroom. You’re safe.”
The words hit a soft place inside me I didn’t want touched. I took a shaky breath, annoyed at myself. “I’m fine,” I muttered.
“You’re shaking.”
