Page 30 of A Secret Crush Valentine's

“Don’t lie to me.” Damon’s voice was stern. “You haven’t had anything to eat. I’m hungry, so you must be, too.”

“What’s it to you?” she snapped.

He drew closer to her, and she felt her heartbeat accelerate. “I can’t afford to see you starve to death.”

“If you cared so much about my life, you wouldn’t have endangered it 16 years ago.”

The words tumbled out almost of their own accord. Damon blinked at her, and she saw surprise and hurt flicker across his face. Not that it mattered. She’d been shocked and hurt as well all those years ago, hadn’t she?

“What?” He sounded incredulous. “That’s the reason you’re mad at me? That’s what this is about?”

His words annoyed her even more. She glared at him. “So you didn’t even realize it before?”

Damon inched nearer but still maintained a careful distance. He looked like he was trying to figure out what to say. “I thought you might’ve been upset for another reason. I…” He shook his head. “Sixteen years ago…”

“We fell through the ice, and then you were gone.” Her voice quivered as she reminded him of the horror. “Just… gone. Do you know how that made me feel?” She drew her knees up to her chest. “I was scared. I was worried. I thought something had happened to you. I didn’t even know ifIwas going to make it.”

“Red, I—”

“You told me I could trust you, Damon. You said nothing would happen.” She spread her arms, gesturing at their surroundings. “Thisisn’t nothing. The 16 years since that afternoon aren’t nothing. Do you know how many nightmares I’ve had about what happened?”

It took her a moment to realize she was hyperventilating, her chest heaving. Before today, she didn’t think she was mad at Damon, not once in nearly two decades. Perhaps it had simply taken her that long to process everything that happened that afternoon in Laudville Lake.

“Do you have any idea how it felt hearing you tell me the same thing hours ago?” She scoffed. “It felt like high school all over again. You assuring me that everything was okay, that nothing could go wrong, asking me to trust you. It felt like, even after all those years, after everything that happened, you hadn’t learned a thing. You just put my life in danger again.”

His green eyes blinked at her. His lips were parted, but no sound came forth.

She looked away, not wanting to meet his gaze. “When you disappeared, I was broken. It didn’t end there. Half the gits on the football team hounded me for months, claiming I must have done something to you. There were even rumors that I had you locked up in a basement somewhere.” She chuckled humorlessly. “Walking across that lake was the most terrifying thing ever. And you made me do it again.”

In the silence that followed, she thought she could hear her own heart pounding in her chest. There was a shuffle as Damon drew even nearer. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him staring at her.

“Red—” he began. “Julia.”

Her head whipped around faster than she could blink. He’d never called her that before.

“I’m sorry.” His voice was barely above a whisper. “For everything. You’re right—I should never have asked you to cross the lake with me back then and today. I’ve put you through a lot of pain.”

He stretched his hand out. In his palm was the food he’d offered her. “I know forgiving me won’t be easy, but I don’t want you to punish yourself.” When she didn’t take the wrapped piece, he set it gently by her ankle. “Just eat. You need your strength.”

With that, he retreated to the other side of the cave, out of her reach.

Julia had a good mind to toss the food back at him. But then her stomach growled again.

She unwrapped the meat and dug in, feeling her insides scream with joy as she chewed and swallowed. She was halfway done with her food when Damon spoke again.

“I was broken too, you know,” he said.

Julia froze with the food halfway to her lips.

“For a very long time, I blamed myself,” he went on. “When I found myself on this mountain and realized you hadn’t come along with me, I thought you must have drowned in that lake.”

“Damon—”

“And that was my fault. I’d asked you to cross Laudville Lake with me.” He wasn’t looking at her; his gaze was fixed on the flames between them. “I should have known the ice wouldn’t hold us. I just… I was trying to impress you.”

Impress me?Slowly, she set her food down.Was Damon McLaurent trying to impressme?

“I’m sorry I snapped at you,” she said hoarsely. She cleared her throat and repeated herself. “I didn’t even realize how upset I was.”

---