I didn’t buy his claim that there wasn’t more between the two of them that was left unspoken, but it didn’t matter. That was their business. “I can’t believe that man. He ruined our lives, and now he’s trying to do it all over again. It’s not like you’re an outsider. You’re a town resident, too. Why isn’t he looking out for you? Well, I can tell you what… He isn’t going to run you out of townagain.”
“He’s not?” Dylan asked, his voice hitching a little abovebaritone.
I crossed my arms over my chest, a protective shield to Dylan’s approach. “No. He doesn’t have theright.”
“Does that mean you want me to stay?” Dylan smiled down at me in the biggest grin I’d seen since he’darrived.
I didn’t know what to say to that. I didn’t want him to stay, but I didn’t want him to go either. “It’s about what’sright.”
He looked at his shiny boots covered ingrass.
I couldn’t stand to see him sad. “I forgive you leaving thatnight.”
His eyes snapped to mine, and he smiled wide. “You do?” He stepped toward me, armsopen.
“Not so fast.” I held a hand to his rock-hard chest. “You still could have called me before you started basic or written to me. Sheriff Milton ran you out of town, but you chose not to talk to me.” I studied the grass beginning to dry on the top of myfeet.
“You don’t understand, Avery. I couldn’t,” he said, his voice low,wounded.
“What do you mean, you couldn’t? I know barely anything about the military, but even in jail you’re given acall.”
He paced back and forth, and I knew there was something more to this. Something he didn’t want to tellme.
I could challenge him and tell him if he really wanted to be together he needed to share everything, but that move could backfire. “I read yourletters.”
Dylan stood stock still, as if standing in front of a loadedgun.
“I felt for you, but still. It doesn’t explain why you never called. Your words were enough to touch my heart but not enough to change my mind. Not enough for me not to feelbetrayed.”
The sun rose higher in the sky, casting Dylan’s shadow on the ground. That’s what he was to me, a shadow of something we once had. He looked wounded, scared. I wanted to reach out and put a hand on his shoulder in comfort, or worse throw my arms around him and forget everything, but I didn’t. I stoodfirm.
“There is something Sheriff Milton didn’t tell you about that night,” Dylan said, his voice heavy with emotion. “I went home upset about our argument that night.” His voicecracked.
I waited for a reason that couldn’t possibly exist to explain why he abandoned me that night. “I know. We were both upset, but that only means you ran when things got tough. Just like my parents.” My voice trembled, my hands trembled, my worldtrembled.
“No. I ran toward something. That night I went home so upset that I drank. I drank and drank. Then I left my house to try one more time to sweep you away. I was going to take you away driving drunk, Avery!” He faced me, grabbed ahold of my shoulders, and I knew he was willing me to truly hear his words. “I was running from my father, but I couldn’t run fast enough. I’d already become him. Sheriff Milton didn’t pull me over. He found me in a ditch. The side of my father’s car, which I had stolen, was crushed by a tree. The seat you would have been riding in that night buried below twisted, crunched metal.” He took two stuttered breaths. His hands shook, but he didn’t let mego.
Fear, anxiety, hopelessness… I felt it all from Dylan. I’d always shared his pain and his happiness. That connection hadn’t severed completely. “I knew you had been drinking,but—”
“Sheriff Milton saved your life and mine that night. I would’ve written sooner after I left, but I had seen my father try so many times to stop drinking, only to fall back into his old ways. It took all I had to quit. Something I had to do on my own. Then I knew I needed a year to make sure it stuck. There was no way I’d ever put you at risk like that again. I thank God every day that Sheriff Milton gave me a choice. Leave town and figure life out, go to jail, or murder the one woman Iloved.”
