Lake looked over my shoulder, and I heard steps crunching on the gravel.
“Hey, I thought I heard a car.”
I turned around. A man with bleach blond hair stumbled to a stop, his jaw dropping as he stared at me.
“B-Benji?”
There was only one person who had ever called me that, but my mind couldn’t really comprehend what or rather who I was seeing.
“River? What are you doing here?”
I watched as my old friend’s face lost all color, he turned around, and booked it back toward the house.
Chapter 3
River
I ran. My heart was in my throat, my blood whooshing in my head as I tore open the front door, and the next thing I knew, I was in my room upstairs, leaning on the closed door behind me.
I shook, trembling like I was cold. Hell, my hands felt frozen suddenly.
I walked to my bed and realized I’d never taken off my shoes, so I kicked them off before curling up and pulling my extra fleece blanket over myself. I recognized this, of course. It was what I’d done as a kid when I’d been upset by something.
I’d never experienced anything like this before. Some part of my brain suggested I was having a panic attack, but the symptoms didn’t match. The initial shock was wearing off, and I didn’t feel out of control, just…confused and lost.
The shaking stopped gradually, but I couldn’t get the image of him out of my mind.
Ben.
The coppery hair shining in sunlight had felt familiar even before he turned around. Adult Ben was…well, if I’d had a crush on the chubby kid he’d been in our teens, the man he’d grown up into was breathtaking.
There was a knock on my door.
“Riv? Can I come in?” Lake asked.
“Sure.” I didn’t want to talk to anyone, but I felt like I needed a hug.
I heard him come in and close the door again. Then he sighed, likely because he took one look at me, and right after I felt the mattress dip when he sat next to me.
“Oh, River,” he whispered as he patted where he thought my head was under the blanket.
“Can you hug me?”
He turned to slide up on the bed. “Only if you come out from under there.”
I considered it for a moment, then decided I was an adult and emerged from my hiding place.
Lake had sat against the headboard, so I moved so I could hug his middle and clung to him while he hugged me back.
“Can you tell me about all that?” he asked quietly after a couple of minutes.
“He’s the guy,” I murmured. “The crush I had as a kid.”
Lake’s fingers stopped and then continued their stroking of my blanket-covered arm. “Makes sense, then.” He sighed. “Ben is the editor sent by Ruth’s agent and the publisher.”
I nodded. I’d figured that one out already.
“He seemed confused about why you ran.”
