Blaze stared at her while candlelight sharpened the tension gathering along his jaw.
“But that doesn’t change what it felt like after you weregone.”
The confession settled softly between them. Years of hurt tucked carefully inside calm words.
Blaze rubbed one hand across his chin before speaking.
“When I left Sheraton Beach, I thought I was searching for something that this town couldn’t offer me.”
Johanna looked at him again. “I know.”
“That’s the worst part.” His voice roughened slightly. “You always understood me too well.”
Something fragile moved through her chest after that because he was right. Johanna had always understood Blaze, even during the years she tried hardest not to. Her anger never erased the truth of who he was to her. She understood him while crying herself to sleep at night, and she understood him after she stopped answering his calls because hearing his voice hurt too much. Some stubborn part of her still understood exactly why he left Sheraton Beach in the first place.
Blaze leaned forward until his forearms rested near the edge of the table.
“Look at me, Jo.”
The low command slid through her instantly, calm, masculine, and utterly certain. Her eyes lifted before she could stop herself, and there it was again, that steady focus that always made her feel seen all the way through.
“I never stopped loving you.”
Her breath caught sharply.
The restaurant disappeared around her after that. The ocean, the music, and even the candlelight. Everything faded except the truth sitting openly in Blaze’s eyes.
“No matter where I was,” he said quietly.
Emotion tightened painfully through her chest. “Braxton…”
“No.” His voice stayed soft but firm. “You don’t get to sit across from me acting like this was one-sided.”
Heat rushed instantly through her body because he was right. And the infuriating thing about Blaze had always been that he knew exactly when he was right.
His eyes dropped briefly to her mouth before returning to hers. “You still feel this too.”
Not a question. Certainty.
The confidence in his voice made her pulse stumble.
Johanna tried for composure and failed completely. “You’re very sure of yourself tonight.”
A slow smile touched his mouth. “Only about you.”
She swallowed. That answer should’ve been illegal.
The waiter approached quietly with the check, clearly sensing the emotional intensity at the table and wanting absolutely no involvement in whatever existed between them.
Blaze paid without even glancing at the total.
Johanna noticed.
Back then they used to split milkshakes because neither of them had enough money for two. Blaze once took her to the state fair with thirty-seven dollars in his wallet and still somehow made her feel like the richest girl alive.
Now he moved through the world differently. More settled, more grounded, and far more certain of who he was. Somehow, that only made him more dangerous.
By the time they stepped outside, the temperature had dropped several degrees. Ocean wind lifted loose curls around Johanna’s face while lanterns glowed softly along the path leading toward the overlook above the beach.
