She turned and kept moving deeper into the forest, not caring about the branches that scraped across her arms or the way her shoes sank into the damp ground, shoes that were not designed for trekking.
The footsteps once again sounded behind her, and she turned her head to see Kayden close. Too close. “Stop following me.”
“I can’t do that, Tilly. You’ve gone off-trail and there was a stabbing in these mountains not too long ago. Not to mention some steep mountain edges.”
“I can look after myself.”
“You need to go back.”
“Tell me, if you really believe I’m as bad as my dad, why did you help me with my car and house? Because you felt sorry for me? Or because you wanted to get close to me so that when I found out it was all a farce, it would hurt that much more?” She tripped over a tree root, and he cursed again and grabbed her arm, but she yanked it back.
“Nothing was a farce. I wanted to help you.”
“You wanted to help me even though you think I might be responsible for a break-in?”
“Eastern said someone saw you leaving the scene of the crime. I simply said if he thought it was you, he should question you.”
The pain that shot through her chest was so distinct, she almost stopped. She should be used to it, right? The locals setting out to hurt her. She wasn’t. And they justkepthurting her.
“But you didn’t defend me either,” she said, with not nearly as much conviction as she’d meant. “You didn’t tell your brother you didn’t think I could have done it. I don’t know why I should have expected you to.” But she had.
There was a short pause. “I didn’t.” He almost sounded like he felt guilty.
She spun on him. “So tell me, what did I do exactly to make you and everyone else in this town hate and mistrust me? Is it that I left with my mother so quickly after my father robbed people?”
“Tilly—”
“I leftformy mother. Because she needed to for her mental health. People were awful to her. People were awful toboth of us. They keyed our cars. They cursed at us in the streets. One man spat at my mother in the grocery store—and no one did or said a thing to defend her.” Tears burned her eyes at the memory.
“I would have said something,” Kayden said softly.
She wanted to believe him. “I don’t believe you. You were just as angry at me about what my father did as others in this town.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw.
“You know he took money from us too?” she said. “All of his and my mother’s savings. Her jewelry. Everything that we had that was worth anything.”
But that had paled in comparison to what he’d done to them on a deeper level. Deserting them. Tarnishing them.
“I came back because there’s a reason she never sold her home,” Tilly continued. “She wanted to return here. To make amends even though they weren’t her wrongdoings. But she never did. So I’m doing what she couldn’t. Or at least trying to. And to answer the question you’ve never asked but always wondered,neither of usknew what my dad was planning. And I haven’t seen him since the day he left. So imagine for a second, the hurt you felt knowing your father’s friend stole from him, then times that by a thousand—and that’s exactly how it felt for me.”
CHAPTER 10
Kayden felt like an asshole. Why couldn’t he say the right goddamn thing?
Tilly turned and started walking again, but she almost immediately tripped for the second time. Kayden caught her arm to steady her before stepping closer, his mouth moving to her ear and his voice lowering.
“I’m sorry. I don’t think you broke into the hardware store, something I should have told my brother.”
When she went completely still, he continued.
“I struggle to trust people, and I can be an ass. But my flaws shouldn’t flow onto you.”
For one whole heartbeat, there was quiet. He didn’t even hear their breaths. When she finally turned, there was a glimmer of tears in her eyes.
“I don’t have many friends in this town. But out of the few I do have, I thought you were one of them.”
The words stabbed through his chest like a knife. He inched closer. “I am. I want to be.”
