“Are you back in contact with him?” Kayden asked before she could get a word in. “Was he the one you were speaking with on the phone last night at the bar?”
She opened and closed her mouth, suddenly unsure what was going on. “Yes, but—”
“Jesus, Tilly!” He stepped back, running his fingers through his hair as frustration flashed across his features. “And you didn’t feel the need to tell me? Was ithimwho left you a message at Cody’s birthday dinner too?”
“Yes. But Kay—”
“This entire time, you’ve been lying to me.”
“No! Well, yes, I didn’t tell you, but I told Eastern—”
“You told my brother but not me?” If possible, his eyes darkened further.
“He’s the sheriff.”
“Were you ever planning to tell me?”
“That’s why I came here. He came to my house this morning.”
“He’shere?” Kayden asked, his eyes turning almost black. “In Misty Peak?”
“Yes, but Kayden—”
“I can’t do this, Matilda.”
She flinched at his use of her full name. At the way he stepped around her and walked away like he couldn’t stand to be around her.
“You can’t do what?” she asked, words almost a whisper.
“I should have listened to my gut,” he said, almost to himself. “I knew you were a Taylor, and yet Istillallowed myself to believe that you could cut him out after what he did. I allowed myself to believe you were different.”
“Iamdifferent.”
“How?” He spun on her, but there was no softness in his expression. “How can you be different when you talk to him, have him in your home, knowing what he did to my father? What he did to so many goddamn people in this town?”
He stepped closer to her again, but she couldn’t move. She felt numb. Like she wasn’t here, this wasn’t real, and his words weren’t really what she was hearing.
“I have so many memories of what your father’s theft did to my dad,” he continued. “Of what losing his house, our family home, did to him. We’d already lost so much and were in the midst of his sickness, thenyourfamily just stepped in and took even more.”
If she wasn’t so numb, his words might have felt like blows to her midsection.
Tears gathered in her eyes, and she wanted to defend herself. He stood there,waitingfor her to respond. But what was the point? After everything they’d been through together, all the progress they’d made, after what she’d said to him last night, he still didn’t trust her.
He probably never would.
“It was always going to end like this, wasn’t it?” she whispered, a tear falling down her cheek.
He turned his head, like the sight of her crying was too much to bear. “You should go.”
Go? Where was she supposed to go? She’d come back to Misty Peak looking for that sense of home, and for a fleeting moment, she’d thought she’d found it.
Forcing her feet to move, she turned and walked toward the visitors center. Getting to her car was a blur, and so was the drive. She didn’t even realize where she was going until she pulled up in front of Harper’s house.
Still numb, she climbed out and walked to the front door, but it wasn’t Harper who opened it…it was Cody. The smile on his face dropped the second he saw her. She hadn’t checked herself in the mirror this time, but if she looked anything like she felt, it wasn’t good.
“Tilly? Are you okay?”
She opened her mouth to say no, to ask if Harper was home, because she needed one person, just one, who trusted her. Cared about her. But before she could utter a word, Harper appeared behind him.
