Her hair is soaking, and as she rakes her fingers through it, she looks around, only there’s something in her stance that has my back stiffening, and I watch her a moment longer. She glances over her shoulder, discreetly peering down the hallway before sparing a longing glance toward the laundry room door.
My brow arches, and I shake my head as I move around to the door, keeping my eye on my little menace.
She’s trying to make a run for it, but that’s not about to happen.
Slipping out of the old shed, I make my way down the side of the house as Aria takes one last glance around, making sure she’s in the clear, and as I lean up against the side of the house, kicking one foot over the other, I listen to the subtle sounds of my girl throwing herself out the side door and making a fucking break for it.
She careens around the side of the house, whipping her head back over her shoulder to make sure I’m not roaring after her, only to slam directly into me a second later. She hits me with so much momentum that her long hair whips right around to my back, leaving a wet imprint on the back of my clean shirt.
“Oomph,” she grunts, getting the wind knocked out of her.
“Going somewhere, princess?”
“FUCK!”
She shoves her hands against my chest, about ready to have a tantrum, when the sound of a car rolling past the property has both our heads whipping around. The Sheriff’s patrol car crawling by makes my heart drop right out of my ass.
I grab Aria before she even has a second to comprehend what we’re seeing, and I slam her up against the side of the house.With one hand clamped over her mouth, I press hard against hers, concealed by the overgrown garden at the side of the property.
The siren turns on, the slightestwhoop, whoopechoing through the street before the patrol car comes to a dead stop outside the neighbor’s home.
Aria stares up at me, wide-eyed, neither of us moving a damn inch as my body pins her to the wall. I feel her heart racing through her chest.
The Sheriff gets out of the car, barely having a moment to slam his door before the neighbor’s screen door whips open, followed by the subtle sound of baby footsteps on the porch.
“Da-da,” a child’s voice cuts through the tension-filled silence.
Ahh fuck. I chose the Sheriff’s neighbor’s place to break into. Just my fucking luck.
“Hey, baby,” the Sheriff says, scooping up the child and walking back toward the door. “Being good for Momma?”
“Uh-huh.”
A woman scoffs, joining the two at the door. “Now you know she’s lying,” the mother laughs. “She’s not happy unless she’s giving me a hard time.”
The Sheriff laughs and hands the baby back to her mom. “Just dropped in to grab my wallet. Left it on the table.”
“No, you didn’t,” she tells him. “I’ve cleaned that table six times already this morning. There’s no wallet there.”
“Crap,” he sighs, moving into the house and letting the screen door fall closed behind him. Their voices fade away, but I don’t move, my hand still braced against Aria’s mouth, her terrified stare locked on mine.
She breathes hard, her chest heaving just as much as mine, and as the silence drags on, that same tension I felt in the lake comes rearing back, growing like never before.
Our hearts race in sync, only I’m not so sure it’s from the fear of being caught, not anymore. It’s something much more. Her stare shifts. The terror in her eyes morphs into an odd curiosity before shifting again into something a little more familiar. Her brows crease as though something has just occurred to her, and I can’t tear my gaze away.
Realizing she’s not about to scream and run for the hills, I lower my hand from her mouth, and she shifts under my hold, her hand lifting to my chest before reaching up to my face. She brushes her fingers over the top of my brow before trailing them down over my cheekbone and further to my jaw.
“I think . . .” She pauses, her voice the most subtle whisper. “I think I’m remembering you.”
My brow arches, my heart suddenly racing for a whole new reason. “Yeah?”
She nods. “I think so. It’s your eyes. I remember them. Only they were younger. Not plagued by so much . . . hurt.”
Fuck.
My hands shift to her waist, gripping her tight as she continues to consider me, those fierce green eyes seeing straight through me like nobody ever has before, and as her hand lowers back to my chest, hovering right over my heart, her gaze fills with the deepest understanding. “You were in love with me.”
I swallow hard, feeling as though my whole fucking world has just turned to ash. How could she possibly know that? Not even as kids did she know, yet staring at me now, years down the track, she can somehow figure it out.
