“I was scared,” she admitted.
Mrs. Talbot looked distressed. “Oh, Grace!”
Here, her name didn’t come with footnotes or assumptions. It came with trust. With storytime voices and reading circles and children who thought she hung the moon simply because she showed up every day and kept her promises.
In this place, Grace Hart was exactly who she had made herself to be.
CHAPTER 26
Luke
Luke watchedGrace disappear through the school doors before he pulled away from the curb.
His hands were tight on the wheel, tighter than they needed to be.
She was fine. She was in a building full of people. Surrounded by kids who loved her and colleagues who?—
Who what? Respected her? Trusted her?
Or quietly wondered what trouble she'd gotten herself into this time?
Was the whole town as petty as his own parents?
Last night replayed in his head on a loop.
He'd broken every speed limit getting there.
And when he'd walked through that door and seen her on the couch—blanket wrapped around her shoulders, eyes too wide, shaking?—
Luke pressed his palms flat against the steering wheel and exhaled slowly.
He wanted to arrest someone.
Whoever had stood outside her house. Whoever had made her feel unsafe in her own space. Whoever had scared her badly enough that her hands were still trembling when he'd knelt in front of her.
Luke's mind circled back to the thing he'd been trying not to think about since last night.
He'd seen Eli leave and Luke had still left her alone. Unprotected. Vulnerable.
Of course he'd left. Didn't he always?
Grace had let him into her house. Into her bed. And he'd left her before dawn. Every single time.
He'd never stayed.
Not once.
Not when she'd curled against him, warm and sleep-soft. Not when he'd felt the question hovering unspoken in the air between them. Not even when she outright asked him to.
Luke's throat felt tight.
He'd treated her like a secret.
Like something shameful.
Like she wasn't worth the risk of being seen.
Luke turned onto Maple Street and slowed as Grace's house came into view.
