Page 43 of Hidden Memories

Again, news travels fast.

“We’re fine. We weren’t home when it happened.”

Santi nods. “Callum said.”

I take a step back, putting distance between us. His scent lingers—leather, cedar wood, something clean and unmistakably male. I slide my hands into my back pockets, and his gaze flickers downward, his eyes tracking my every movement. I don’t hate the weight of his stare on me. I should. Maybe I’m just one of those women who mistakesintensity for love. Maybe my father conditioned me to believe that danger and control are the same as devotion.

I stand my ground in the silence between us. He came here. Let him speak.

He does.

“You’re staying here with Julia. I don’t want you going back until Callum figures this out.”

My head jerks back at the command in his voice. This man gives me whiplash.

I cross my arms. “Is that a question or a statement, Santi?”

He drags a hand through his hair, a habit I know too well. The same restless energy, the same untamed frustration that used to make me want to soothe him. He exhales sharply, his chest rising and falling as he stares past me like he’s waging some internal war.

I throw up my hands. “One minute, you’re saving me when I need a way out. The next?” I make air quotations. “We’re not friends. And now, what? You’re suddenly in protector mode? Or do I have that wrong?”

His jaw tightens. “I’m just being a decent man.”

The words hit like a slap. Anger claws up my throat.A decent man?

I grit my teeth. He was hardly decent when he left me all those years ago. When I was ready to follow him anywhere, give up everything, sleep in a car with him, and eat peanut butter sandwiches for the rest of my life. And he didn’t show up.

He wasn’t there.

But now isn’t the time to hash it out. Hell, we never have to. I’m not getting involved with a man ever again. It doesn’t matter.

Except when he takes a step closer… suddenly, it does.

I step back, my spine pressing against the wall. I cross my arms over my chest like armor, but it does nothing to keep out the heat radiating from him.

“I don’t need a decent man,” I say, my voice like steel. “Or any man, for that matter. Thanks for introducing me to Julia. I genuinely appreciate that. But I won’t be asking you for anything else.” I glance down the hallway. “She said she has my back.”

His laugh is low, smug. “And who do you think has hers?”

I snap. “This isn’t your problem.”

“The hell it isn’t.”

Frustration bubbles over. “So that’s why you’re here? For Julia? Because we brought trouble to her home?”

His confession is so quiet it almost disappears.

“We both know why I’m here.”

My breath catches. The world stops.

The past rises like a storm, memories slamming into me all at once. How much I loved him. How much I lost when he didn’t come. I can see it now—the same ghosts haunting him, too. Questions burn in his gaze, weight pressing into his broad shoulders.

Heartbroken souls will forever be greedy for repair.

Just then, the back screen door slams shut.

“Mom?”

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