Andie turned onto the narrow, dirt road as his driveway came into view, revealing something she hadn’t expected to see—a shiny red Audi Coupe. Trenton’s truck was parked beside it, but even that looked out of place with the pile of suitcases and furniture stacked in back.
And there was Trenton, shaking hands with a man in a suit. Andie tried to piece the puzzle together as the guest climbed into his red car and spun the thing around. Yet just as he sped past Andie and her car on the narrow drive, she caught sight of something she hadn’t seen before. A For Sale sign.
Her heart sank fast and hard. What was going on here? And why was Trenton walking back toward the house? He’d clearly seen her pull up.
The car was rolling at no more than a crawl, but as she slammed her foot against the brakes, it peeled to an abrupt stop. She was quick to put it in park, shut off the engine, and climb out of the driver’s seat.
“Hey,” she hollered as she rushed up his driveway.
Trenton was hurrying through the front door which, she noticed, had been propped open by a brick.
“I’m leaving,” he mumbled over his shoulder. He weaved through the house and into the kitchen where a cooler rested by the fridge. Trenton bent to secure the thing with both hands and stood up with a grunt. “Excuse me,” he said as he moved past her and toward the front door.
It felt like she’d stepped into an alternate universe. One where the man before her wasn’t the same man at all. Surely this wasn’t the same Trenton who’d told her he loved her just two days ago.
“Trenton, what are you doing?” Her body turned achy and tight as she followed him out of the house, down the steps, and to the open flatbed of his truck.
He plopped the cooler onto the open tailgate and gave it a shove onto the flatbed. “Did Betty tell you to come out here and stop me?” he asked while spinning to head back to the house.
“No. What’s going on, Trenton?” Andie trailed up the steps behind him, determined to make him stop and talk to her once and for all.
“I’ll let you figure that out.” He tore into the house and hurried toward the hall.
Andie stayed in place, wondering if the chaotic state of her heart and head were visible from the outside. Her body, tight with anxious energy, had started to tremble. The quiver was most obvious in her hands, so she balled them into fists and folded her arms.
She wasn’t going to move out of his way. In fact… Andie spun to eye the propped storm door as an idea came to mind. She reached for the inside door—made of solid wood—closed it behind her, and planted her feet right in front of it, arms folded over her chest once more.
The steady sound of his boots on the floor said he was about to round the corner. He was carrying a wooden chest this time, about the size of the cooler, as he entered the room.
Andie pinned her eyes on him as his footsteps slowed. He gazed at the set of her stance before meeting her eyes, the angry glare on his face making her heart ache anew.
He gulped, stubbornly holding tight to the chest in his grip.
“Trenton,” she said, voice shaky. “I don’t know what you’re doing, or where you plan to go, but you havenoright to ignore me like this. Tell me what’s going on.”
“Why, because you don’t like it when people keepsecretsfrom you?” The words came out cold and sharp, matching the rigid glare on his face.
Secrets. He’d emphasized the word for a reason. “Trenton, where is all of this coming from?”
“From the horse’s mouth, I guess you could say. Betty overheard Richard talking to you yesterday. He said you were lying about who you are and where you’re from.”
Andie ground her teeth through her clenched jaw.Stupid Richard.“You don’t understand,” she breathed. “There are some things that…that Ican’ttell—”
“Is your name Andie Duran or not?” Trenton demanded.
Andie held his gaze, mind stuck on the impossible dilemma. Yes, thatwasher name now. It would be her name for the rest of her life. But saying yes to his question would be dishonest. It’s not what her namehadbeen.
“That wasn’t a hard question,” he hissed.
It was much harder than he knew. How could she tell him? How could she say that—though he didn’t know her given name or even the place she’d grown up—he knewherbetter than anyone else did. “Can you please just trust me when I say that…that it’s not my secret to tell? And soon, I hope, I can share it with you. Just not now.”
Trenton’s face only hardened as he shook his head. “I’ve had enough secrets in my life to cover me till I’m dead. I’d say it’s been nice knowing you, but it turns out I never really did.” And with that, he stomped into the kitchen instead. After a few short scuffles, Andie heard the back door creak open.
“Go ahead and let yourself out.”
She stayed frozen in place as she listened to the sounds of him out front. The proud part of her wanted to let him leave without another word. But she couldn’t do that. The secretsshe kept were ones that didn’t matter. Who cared what her name used to be? And what difference did it make that she was actually from Jersey instead of LA?
Those questions urged her on as she spun around, tore open the front door, and bolted down the porch steps. Trenton was hoisting the wooden trunk into the flatbed.
