“It wasn’t fake,” he says quickly. “It was me. I never lied about who I was as a person. Just the name.”
“Oh, right. That little detail.”
“Faith—Luna—just let me explain. The feelings were all real that I felt for you.”
I slide off the bed, sheet wrapped around me like armor. “You don’t get to explain right now.”
“Then what do I get?”
I pause at the edge of the bed, heart jackhammering in my chest.
“Right now?” I say. “You get to get dressed.”
I snatch up my clothes and head for the door, turning just before I step out.
“You were right about one thing, though,” I say. “Last nightwasabout us. But I have no idea who ‘us’ even is anymore.”
The door shuts behind me.
And I walk barefoot into the field, his scent still on my skin, my heart a mess of everything I never saw coming.
23
FAITH
That afternoon, I stab the trowel into the dirt with more force than necessary.
The poor lavender plant I’m trying to repot looks traumatized, half-tilted and flailing like I just pulled it out of a burning building.
Too bad. It’s how I feel.
The sun is hot on my shoulders, and sweat beads along my collarbone. I haven't bothered to shower yet. I needed todosomething. Move. Get my hands dirty. Try to bury the wild, tangled mess of emotions clawing inside me.
Betrayal. Embarrassment. Confusion.
And still, somehow, the worst of all:desire.
My thighs still clench when I think about last night. And I hate myself for it.
How could he? How couldI? I trusted him—Thor—because he felt separate from all the crap in my life. But he wasn’t. He wasHunter Holloway. Brooding, smug, too-handsome-for-his-own-good pain in my ass.
And my boss.
“Morning, sugar,” Daddy calls from the back porch.
I freeze, my hand in the potting soil.
“You're up early,” I call back, trying to sound normal.
“Didn’t hear you come in last night.” He steps onto the porch, sipping his coffee. “You sleep at Daphne’s?”
“Yeah,” I say too quickly. “Girls’ night.”
He nods, not quite buying it, but also not prying.
“Beautiful day,” he says, surveying the yard. “You hear Keith is coming back in two weeks?”
My stomach drops.
