The words hung between them. She swallowed, her eyes wide.
Then she tore her hand away. “Oh, no…” She stood up.
“Sierra?”
She rounded on him, her eyes glazed. “You can’t just show up and say that.” Sierra’s voice shook.
“Why not? It’s true.”
“Because you left.” Ten years of hurt poured into those three words. “You promised you’d come back, and you left.”
“I had to leave. After what happened with my stepfather?—”
“You could have taken me with you.”
The accusation hit harder than a physical blow. “You were eighteen years old with a full scholarship to Colorado State. I wasn’t going to ask you to give that up for a boy with no future and a lot of anger.”
“That should have been my choice.”
“Maybe. But I was eighteen too, and scared, and I thought I was protecting you.”
Sierra paced to the window, stared out into the blackness.
“Sierra—”
“I waited for you.” She turned to face him, eyes hot. “For two years, I waited. I kept thinking you’d come home on leave, or call, or write. Something.”
Her words could knock him over. She’d waited? What about Huck?
That didn’t feel like waiting.
She wiped her face. “And now you’re back, expecting what? That I’ll just pick up where we left off like nothing happened?”
“I’m not expecting anything.” He stood slowly, reading the pain and anger radiating from her small frame. “I’m hoping. There’s a difference.”
Sierra wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly looking fragile and young. “You’re going to break my heart again. I just know it, and this time…” She swallowed. Shook her head. “I can’t do this.”
“Can’t do what?”
“This. Us. Whatever this is.” She gestured between them with sharp, frustrated movements. “I have Huck to think about.”
Rowan took a step toward her, then stopped when she flinched. “What if we take it slow?”
A pause. “How slow?”
“As slow as you need. I’m not going anywhere, Sierra. Not this time.”
The promise felt like an oath, binding and absolute. He’d spent ten years running from this feeling, from the knowledge that he’d left the best part of himself in this house with this woman. He wouldn’t make that mistake again.
“You said you didn’t know. That you weren’t staying…”
“The only thing that could make me leave is if you asked me to.”
Sierra stared at him, searching his eyes, as if testing his words. He let her look, let her see the decade of regret and longing he’d carried.
“I should get some sleep,” she said finally. “Church comes early.”
Oh. Sure. What did he think—that’s she’d leap into his arms?
