But as I walked down the hall and gripped the door latch, I knew who was on my porch. My stomach clenched.
There was only one person who could slip my wards because he was a part of them.
I yanked on the door and glared at the dryad-wizard.
“Go away, Card.Youleftme. For once in your life, stick to your own damn decision.”
ChapterTwo
Time hadn’t left so muchas a fingerprint on the man. He was still shorter than me by about two inches (which I secretly loved), still built strong—rugby more than wrestler—and still had a smile that could absolutely knock the breath out of me.
He was using that smile now. I clenched my jaw, trying to remind my lungs how to function. Trying to remind my heart that he had broken it years ago.
“Miss me, Ricks?” His soft, low voice plucked across my skin like a lover’s caress.
How could I not miss him? He was burned into me, into every line of ink on my skin, into every stray memory of love I’d spent years sweeping into corners of attics not my own.
Still, the sandy brown hair with annoyingly perfect sun streaks highlighting it.
Still, the deeply tanned skin and endless green eyes that shifted to jade, silver, and forest with the seasons.
Still, the scent of him, which Val had called oak, and I had once called happiness.
He was waiting. Right there. I could touch him. I could let his presence be a balm for all the lonely days without him.
I slammed the door in his face.
“Erica? Ricky? Ricks?” he called through the door. “Come on. I just want to talk to you. It’s been too long. Just one conversation.”
The tattoos down my arms burned with magic. Vines twisted and bloomed, birds opened wings to a sky they’d never fly. The magic of the Crossroads responded to him because it knew him.
But then, I knew him better. “Go away, Card. I don’t want you or your trouble.”
“Trouble?” His voice came from beneath the window as I walked back down the hall. He was pacing me outside, which was annoying, but also...slightly charming?
No, not charming. Pushy. Ridiculous.
“I’m not bringing you trouble,” he shouted. “I’m bringing you an opportunity.”
“Oh, like hell you are.” He couldn’t hear me because I’d turned into the house proper, down a hall with no windows.
I wanted my kitchen and toast and coffee. I wanted my quiet morning routine. Then I would go outside, pick up my toolbelt, and get to work on my shop. When Fate showed up, maybe I’d hand her a saw and tell her to get to work. We could laugh about old relationships and the fools we’d been in the past.
Val was waiting for me in the kitchen, sitting on the counter by the sink. “Sorry,” he said. “I really was watching him.”
“It’s fine.”
“But then he sort of slipped? I don’t know how to explain it. He was across the street, muttering to himself and kicking rocks. Then he took a big step and was gone.”
“Yeah, he does that.”
“Do you want to know what he was muttering?”
“Not really.”
“He kept saying, ‘Ricky is gonna kill me. Ricky is gonna kill me.’”
I pulled eggs out of the basket and cracked them into a bowl. “At least he remembers that about me.”
