“Kandra? Is that you?”
I smoothed a trembling hand down the front of my apron, put on my game face smile, and spun around.
Benji’s curly brown hair had lengthened a bit and sprung away from his head a good three or four inches. His brown eyes bored into mine, and he stepped in and wrapped me in a tight hug.
“Welcome back.”
I patted his shoulder awkwardly.
He stepped away and took both my hands in his. Excitement crackled like electricity in his eyes, and his warm fingers squeezed mine.
“It’s good to see you.” I gave a smile, hoping I sounded sincere. It wasn’t that I didn’t like Benji, it’s that I didn’t have the energy to deal with him.
“It’s so good.” He pulled me into another tight hug.
I stood there, stiff and uncomfortable, until his arms loosened. He stepped back and planted both hands on my shoulders. “We have to get together soon.”
“Sure,” I nodded, “but I’m working right now, so I should get back to it.” Flashing a bright smile I didn’t feel inside, I tried to shrug him off and leave, but his fingertips tightened, holding me captive. I met his stare head-on.
“Let me give you my number.” His happy expression seemed frozen on his face, and a chill swept down my spine.
“That would be great.” I passed him a napkin from my apron pocket, and he stared at it like I’d given him a germ infested rag.
“Don’t you have a cell phone?”
Thinking fast, I nodded. “Yeah, but I’m not allowed to have it at work, so it’s turned off and in my locker.” I didn’t like lying, but something about Benji seemed off. Upon reflection, something about him was always off.
“Can you get table eight another round?” Roy’s voice was like a life preserver hitting the open ocean while I was drowning in the depths.
“Of course. Sorry for standing around.” I smiled at Benji. “I have to go. Don’t want to get fired on my first day.” Before he could respond, I rushed off, with Roy a step behind me.
“Thank you.” I wasn’t sure why I was thanking him, but it seemed right.
“No worries. If I didn’t step in and do something, table eight was going to.” He offered me the tray of beers, and I balanced it, praying I wouldn’t drop anything.
Focused on my task, it took a moment for me to realize what he’d said. If he hadn’t stepped in, table eight would have. Who was at table eight?
I tilted my chin up high and scanned the tables. When my eyes landed on eight, my blood froze to ice in my veins, and my legs stopped working. I stood there, staring at him. Noah.
Was he the one who would have stepped in if Roy hadn’t?
His bright blue eyes met mine. The contrast of his dark hair and light eyes had always mesmerized me, but the boy I’d known in school had grown into a man—a handsome man, though he’d always been dangerously good-looking.
The slight curl to his lips and the cold hue of his eyes hit me like a tidal wave. Again, that drowning sensation washed over me, and I gasped in a breath.
Somehow I managed to coax my legs into moving and walked toward him, but every step might as well have been one closer to my undoing. I slogged forward like I was approaching a hangman’s noose, ready to pay for all my crimes. Crimes I committed against Noah. Not literal, law-breaking ones, but crimes of the heart—crimes of love.
That day played in my mind like a high definition movie.
“Noah, I love you, but I can’t stay here in Cross Creek. I have dreams. I want to see the world, I want to be a photographer, and I can’t do that if I’m here.” Walking away from him was the hardest thing I had ever done, but I couldn’t risk staying and then resenting him if I couldn’t pursue my dreams. An ocean rained from my eyes as I left him there by the creek, holding a ring that I didn’t even look at.
My cheeks stung red hot as his gaze moved over me like he was taking stock and then met mine again. That cruel chill still shone brightly from his eyes. He wasn’t the only Lockhart gawking; his brothers were studying me too.
I’d been in love with Noah, but Ethan, Quinn, and Bayden had always treated me like family. Seeing them made me realize how much I missed them.
An uncomfortable tingle danced over my skin, leaving undulating waves of prickling heat and icy chill behind. I imagined that this is what sticking a fork in a light socket felt like. My chest contracted painfully like it was trying to squeeze the life from me. My stomach twisted into knots that were less fluffy and airy than Roy’s garlic treats.
A cruel smile tugged the corners of Noah’s lips as I approached with the speed of a slug.
While he had every right to be, was he still angry at me after all these years? Something about Roy’s statement wasn’t meshing in my brain. I couldn’t entertain the thought of him standing up to Benji for me while still being mad at me for the past.
Sure, Noah had always been a good guy, but would he defend the honor of a woman who had no honor to speak of?
Dark spots swam before my eyes, and I adjusted the tray in my aching arm while begging myself not to faint.
I was back in Cross Creek, freshly dumped, alone, and standing in front of my first love, who stared at me like I was something someone had dragged in on the bottom of their shoe.
Chapter Three
Noah
“She’s almost here.” Quinn’s voice stayed in rhythm with his tap on Ethan’s shoulder. Bayden sat sullenly after his conversation with Angie, but my eyes were on Kandra.
Tomorrow was the anniversary of the most tragic loss of my life, and it coincided with the woman I’d loved—the one who tore my heart out—showing back up in our hometown.
Could my day get any worse?
What next? Was I about to fall out of my chair from a heart attack? An aneurysm, maybe?
I finished my beer and watched her approach. Her “deer in the headlights” expression didn’t change one bit as she inched our way. She pressed her full, red lips together into a tight line, then released them. When the blood rushed back, they appeared redder—the color of succulent overripe strawberries.
Kandra knew all the tricks of the trade. The woman who left wanting to be a photographer became a model instead, so the whole lip thing was no accident. How many men fell for those soulful eyes and kissable lips?
I scrubbed my face with my palm. What did it matter? Everything she ever told me, everything she’d claimed to aspire to, was all bullshit. I could put a rock in a pretty box, but at the end of the day, it was still just a rock. Pretty on the outside doesn’t mean the inside matches.
I had nothing against attractive women or modeling as a profession, but I didn’t like being lied to, manipulated, or tricked by someone who claimed to love me.
Her aquamarine eyes locked on to my face and silently begged me not to make a scene. How was it that, after all these years, I could still read her expressions, but she obviously never really knew me if she thought I was the kind of guy to cause trouble.
“Be cool.” Quinn elbowed Ethan, who let out a stunned grunt. “But not too cool. She’s Noah’s, remember.”
“She’s not mine,” I grumbled under my breath. Maybe she had been once when we were kids. Back then, I’d given her my heart, but Kandra Sullivan didn’t love men for who they were, she loved men for what they could give her, and I failed to give her the things she thought she needed, so she abandoned me.