“Something’s on your mind. Say it.”
She lifted a shoulder. “I just thought…youcouldhave seen it on the few occasions you returned to Misty Peak over the years. My smile, that is.”
She was right, he could have. Why hadn’t he?
Because he’d been afraid that if he’d gone to her, heard her voice, he might not have had the will to leave again? Because he was afraid to want her?
“I’m sorry.” He wasn’t sure if he was apologizing for losing contact or not visiting her more often. Maybe everything.
“You don’t need to say sorry. You were off saving the world. You were exactly where you were meant to be.”
Really? Because right now, standing in this parking lot with Elle, he wondered if that was ever true.
She sucked in a quick breath. “Well, I should get going.” She lifted the bag. “Thank you again.”
“Anything for you, Tink.”
Another flicker of her brows, then she dipped her head and moved around him. She’d only taken a couple of steps when she stopped and turned. “Can I ask you something?”
“Anything.”
“Did you do it?”
“What?”
“That night we were in the mountains, at the party. You told me you wanted to get out of Misty Peak so that you could make something of yourself like your brothers. Did you do it?”
Did he? Sometimes he thought he had. But now? “You want the truth?”
“Always.”
“I don’t think I ever knew what I was trying to achieve. Not really.” One side of his mouth lifted. “But I’m glad I’m back.”
He got a small smile from her for that. “I’m glad too, Jace.”
And the second she got in her car and drove away, he felt that same thing he always felt. Like a part of himself had just left with her. Gone. And he had no idea what to do without it.
CHAPTER 5
Jace sipped his beer as he sat at the end of his brother’s bar, watching the people around him.
You could tell a lot about a person if you paid enough attention. Little things gave them away. Like how a person dressed. How they smiled or the volume at which they spoke.
The guy in the corner, for example, wanted people to think he had money. He was hitting on a redhead and kept flashing his watch. A Rolex that was likely as fake as the knockoff Oxfords on his feet.
People with money didn’t try so hard. They didn’t have to. And they certainly didn’t wave their watch around, desperate for the person they were hitting on to see.
Jace switched his attention to the other side of the bar, where a group of guys were getting loud and rowdy. The loudest one had been pulling most of the attention in the group with his remarks and little skits. He wanted people to think he was confident. Self-assured. When really, his actions reeked of someone who was desperate for validation.
“Never seen you so quiet for so long, brother.”
Jace looked up at Cody. “There a problem with being quiet?”
“If you were Kay, I’d say no. But I’ve never seenyouquiet for more than five minutes before.”
Jace lifted a shoulder. “Maybe I’m not the kid I used to be.”
Cody frowned before leaning over the bar. “What’s going on in your head?”
