Page 10 of The One Who Changed Everything

His lips twitched like he was fighting a smirk. “Pool closes at ten.”

I glanced toward the sign near the gate, scowling when I saw the posted hours. “Seriously?”

Evan shrugged, stepping closer. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell—if you let me join you.”

I shut my eyes, ignoring the temptation to trace his abs with my gaze. “It’s a free country,” I replied.

“If I get in, are you going to leave?”

My lips twitched. “Maybe.”

He sighed. “Does it have to be like this?”

“Like what?”

“You avoiding me at every turn? I said I was sorry, Sam. I know it doesn’t make up for the way I disappeared, but it’s true. That night…” He bit off his words. “That night changed everything for me.”

I barely contained the scoff that built in my lungs. It changed everything for him? I was the one who walked away as a single mom. What could have honestly changed for him?

My curiosity got the better of me and I whispered the question, my eyes opening at the sound of him slipping into the water. “How?”

He took a moment to answer, his head tipping back to look at the sky, exposing his throat and causing the muscles at the base of his neck to flex.

“The fire.” His voice was quiet, almost drowned out by the bubbling water.

I stilled. A strange prickle ran down my spine. “The one at the club?”

He nodded, dragging a hand through his wet hair. His jaw clenched so tight I swore I could hear his teeth grind. “Yeah.” He let out a sharp breath and finally looked at me, his gaze filled with something raw and unguarded. “That night didn’t just change everything, Sam. It wrecked me.”

I swallowed hard. “I don’t—”

“My brother was there,” he said, cutting me off. “Mason.”

I blinked. “Your brother?” I met his brother briefly that week. I remembered his blonde hair and the way he’d teased Evan about me before we’d ditched him on the boardwalk.

He gave a hollow laugh and tipped his head back against the stone edge. “Yeah. He was barely eighteen. Just a stupid kid looking to have fun.” His voice wavered, but he pushed forward. “I brought him on the trip, did you know that? Told him we’d have a great time. Promised my parents I’d look out for him.”

A knot formed in my stomach. I already knew where this was going.

“I still feel like the night is all hazy. I know we were in the bathroom when the fire broke out,” he continued, his voice lower now, like he hated saying the words. “You and me.” He gave me a brief, unreadable look before staring at the water again. “I remember the smoke, the alarm blaring. The whole place was crazy. People screaming, shoving—” He exhaled sharply. “I lost you in the crowd by the exit. But I had to find him.”

My fingers tightened on the hot tub’s edge.

“I searched for him,” he whispered. “Fought my way through the smoke, tried to get back inside, but security dragged me out. And when the fire was finally out…” His voice broke. “He didn’t make it.”

The silence that followed was suffocating.

I felt cold despite the steaming water. My memories were hazy too. Many times over the years, I’d wondered if someone hadn’t spiked my drink. Not Evan. No, that thought had never crossed my mind. I might have only known him a week, but Ihadknown him. Some of his more obnoxious friends had mentioned that we needed to loosen up. A comment that could have been innocent. Or not.

After the fire, I watched the news, cried about the people who didn’t make it out. He’d been with me by the exit, so even though I’d never heard from him over the years, I’d never really considered that he hadn’t made it out. But I never imagined he’d lost someone. I’d been so heartbroken when I never heard from him. And then, after I found out about Sophia, I became terrified that I would.

“I didn’t know,” I whispered.

He gave a tight, humorless smile. “Of course, you didn’t. I didn’t have a way to tell you.” His hands clenched beneath thesurface. “By the time I could think straight, you were gone. I tried, Sam. I tried to find you.”

I looked down, guilt twisting inside me. I had spent years believing I was the only one left to pick up the broken pieces of that night. But Evan… he had been carrying his own wreckage all along.

“You tried to find me?”

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