Page 40 of Bad Decisions & Back Roads

I dropped my chin.“We live in the same town.I worry about my mother without Misty there to be a buffer.”My voice softened despite myself.“Mama’s not doing great, but I can’t get her to leave.”

The silence stretched.

Then quietly, carefully, like he was trying not to spook me, he said, “I’ll go with you next time you have to go out there.”

I barked out a sarcastic laugh before I could stop it.“Because that would go well.”

He didn’t smile.Instead, his eyes dropped back to the fading bruises, and something in his expression twisted sharply as if seeing them on me physically hurt him.

“I don’t want him to hurt you worse,” he admitted softly.

I bumped my shoulder against his, trying to lighten something that suddenly felt too raw between us.“Kind of déjà vu, huh?We’re having the same conversation we had all those years ago.”

Only, I got hurt enough to force me to leave back then.

“Seems so,” he said, voice rough.“Difference is, back then we were kids.Now we’re not.”His hand flexed at his side like he wanted to reach for me and stopped himself.“Why didn’t you tell me what happened to you after you ran away?One text.One call.Anything.I still don’t even know where you went.I thought for a while you might’ve died.I don’t understand how you could forget everything we had like that.”

I frowned up at him, close enough now to see the fatigue etched into his face.Without thinking, I reached up and plucked a small shavings chip from his hair.My fingers lingered half a second too long.

“I did reach out,” I said softly.“I called a few hours after we fought.I texted four or five times on the ride out of town.”My hand dropped.“You ghosted me.You didn’t even send a one-word answer back.I figured that was your way of saying you’d never forgive me.It wasn’t too long before I lost that phone.Someone stole it.”

“What?No—” He broke off, scrubbing a hand over the back of his neck.“I dropped my phone that day.Ran over it with my car like an idiot.It took a day to replace it.But there weren’t any messages when I got the new one up and running.”

I blinked.

Years of hurt shifted and rearranged into something unsteady and new.

“Ah,” I breathed.“It must’ve lost the messages or something.I swear I called and texted.”Now there was nothing to hide behind.There was no excuse that he’d forgotten about me or hated me.He thought I was the one who ghosted him.

The air between us changed in a way that made every inch of space matter.

I pushed to my feet too fast, grabbing at scattered supplies just to have something to do.“I should?—”

When I turned, he was there.Too close.My breath caught.

He braced a hand on either side of me on the stall’s wall, not touching, but boxing me in.The heat of him pressed in, familiar in a way that resonated somewhere deep inside where I’d buried and forgotten about it.

He whispered, “You called.”

“I called,” I breathed out.“Why didn’tyoutry reaching out?”

“I did.But I only had the number for the phone you lost.You never tried again to reach me?It…it’s been a long time.”

“Itwasa long time ago.”

“I don’t know what the hell this still is,” he said, voice rougher now.His gaze rose to my mouth, then back to my eyes.“You being here…” He swallowed hard.

I didn’t move.Didn’t step away.Didn’t breathe.

He leaned in slowly as if giving me time to stop him.

I didn’t.

His lips brushed mine once.Light.Testing.

It wasn’t enough.My hands came up, sliding into his hair, gripping, pulling him down to me even though I knew better than to start this.

The shift in him was instant.He kissed me like he’d been holding back for years—starved, furious, and desperate all at once.It sent heat spiraling through me so fast my knees weakened.He pulled me into the solidness of him, folding me against him and keeping me upright.