Pain flashed across his face so quickly I almost missed it.
“Don’t,” I whispered.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“That’s worse.”
Finally, I forced myself to look at him.
Concern sat openly in his eyes now.
Questions too.
Questions I couldn’t survive hearing from him.
“I told you,” I said, my voice breaking around the edges. “You wouldn’t look at me the same way.”
His jaw tightened immediately.
“That’s not true.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Then tell me what happened.”
Why wouldn’t he stop?
Why wouldn’t he just look at me the way everyone else did and walk away already?
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Tessa—”
“I said it doesn’t matter!”
The words cracked through the tavern hard enough to make me shake.
I couldn’t stay here.
Not while everyone stared at me like they already knew the whole story.
Not while Ace looked at me like he still wanted answers instead of distance.
“I have to go.”
I backed away before he could stop me.
Then turned and shoved through the tavern doors into the mountain air.
The breeze hit my face sharply.
I kept walking.
Faster.
Faster.
Because I already knew how this ended.
