But it wouldn’t do. He was here now, and by the looks of the shop, he wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. If she lied, he’d just find out the truth from someone else in town.
No, she was just going to have to be brave and tell him the truth. If she could face Keir, if she could admit to him what she’d done after everything she put him through, she could do the same for Julian. Her best friend in the whole world. “I’m not new in town, not exactly. I lived here long ago, the same as you.”
Julian cocked his head to one side. “You know who I am then. It seems I’m at a disadvantage.” He looked her up and down, trying to place her. “I don’t remember any silver-haired girls in town, and I’m fairly certain I wouldn’t have forgotten you.”
Charlotte felt the heat of his gaze. Was he flirting with her? She laughed in spite of her nerves. If he knew who she was… “I look a bit different now, and I go by a different name. My name is Charlotte, but you once called me Danny.”
“Danny?” Julian repeated, confused. And then: the dawning look of recognition.That’s the one,thought Charlotte.
The smile vanished from Julian’s face. He stumbled backwards, his hand grasping for something to hold onto but finding only air. “No. It can’t be. Danny died. Everyone said Danny was dead.”
Charlotte took a deep breath. Of course he had thought she was dead. They all had.
Julian was hunched over against the wall behind the counter. He looked utterly broken. Here he had stood just minutes earlier looking perfectly content, and now this. This is what she had done to him.
She couldn’t do this. The guilt overwhelmed her. She had let her best friend in the whole world think she was dead. He wasjust a child, too. How must it have felt for him when she didn’t come back?
How could she have been so selfish?
“Is it really you?” Julian’s voice was tiny. It was the voice of eight-year-old Julian. Of the boy that still lived inside of this man’s body.
There was no going back. There was no taking away that little boy’s pain. But maybe she could give the gift of closure to the man. It wasn’t enough, but it was all she had to give. “Julian, it’s me.”
Julian’s eyes lifted to meet hers on the mention of his name. For the briefest moment, she could see the glisten of a tear before he blinked it away. “You’re alive.”
“I’m alive.”
“And you’re…” Julian gestured to Charlotte’s body.
“I’m Charlotte,” she said.
“Well, Charlotte,” said Julian. “Tell me everything.”
Charlotte told Julian everything that had happened to her. He had already known what things were like for her at home, so it wasn’t that much of a surprise to him to learn that she’d chosen to let everyone believe she was dead rather than return there.
“But you could have told me,” he said. He had sat her down at a table in the front of the shop. When a customer came, he helped them, but not before begging her to stay until they left. “I wouldn’t have told anyone. You know that, right?”
Charlotte had thought about it many times. “I knew you wouldn’t tell, not intentionally, anyway. But someone might have seen us together. I couldn’t risk being seen. It would have given me away.”
“But you could have sent the korrigans to get me. Or you could have come yourself after you changed. I doubt anyone would have recognized you then. I didn’t.”
Charlotte smirked. “I could tell you didn’t recognize me.”
Julian’s eyes widened. “I’m sorry if I was a bit…forward. You’re just…” He looked down at his hands as if they were very interesting, as if he wasn’t humiliated at all. Not in the slightest. He cleared his throat.
Charlotte’s ears were hot. He was attracted to her, that was plain to see. And she would’ve had to have been blind not to see how handsome he’d become. Gods, that beard…but they werefriends.Long lost friends, reunited at last, and that meant more than any fleeting attraction could.
“You were always wearing those dresses, even back then. I knew it was a joke, but I also knew it wasn’t. I’m surprised to see you again, but I’m not surprised you’re a woman. If that makes sense.”
“But you’re surprised that I’m a pretty woman,” said Charlotte. She wasn’t sure why she was repeating it. She was teasing him, she decided. As friends do. “Don’t worry; that surprised me as well.”
“Yes, well, you already know what I think. You let me make that clear. A couple of times.”
“Sorry,” said Charlotte, grinning. “I couldn’t resist.”
“Charlotte?” Julian grabbed her hand from across the table, and the years were gone. He was Julian, holding her hand to help her up the tree on Orchard Lane. Julian, running with her in the fields by Weldan House chasing rabbits. Julian, the sun on his brown skin, his laughter on the summer breeze.
“I’m so glad to have you back.”
