Page 5 of Reckless Hearts

That we burned the bridge between us and danced in the ashes?

“Didn’t you know?” Luke Williams drawls from the open doorway, perfectly timed. “These twohateeach other.”

Chapter 2

Callie

His voice dropslike a bomb in the room.

“These two hate each other.”

“Bullshit,” I say, the word slipping out sharp, reflexive. For a second, heat flares in my chest, anger, frustration but it’s gone just as fast, swallowed by something heavier. Confusion. Dread.

“Luke, back off,” Maverick says, voice a warning.

Neither of them corrects me. Neither denies it. They just stand there, Colt clenching his jaw so tight it’s a wonder he can breathe, Maverick wound up like a live wire. Both of them staring anywhere but at each other.

My heart stutters.

I crossed an entire state for this. For them. And now they won’t even look at each other?

“Maverick?” I manage, barely above a whisper. “Colt?”

They still don’t answer.

I glance between them, stomach twisting. The two people I trusted most in the world, who used to finish each other’s sentences, who used to feel like home but now?

Now, they look like strangers.

“What the hell happened to you two?”

What could have possibly changed in eight years to cause… whateverthisis? I’m struggling to wrap my head around the fact that Colt looks like he could punch a hole in the wall, and Maverick’s shoulders are drawn so tight I’m surprised they haven’t snapped.

“I don’t know what’s going on between you two,” I say softly, my voice catching. “But… you’re best friends. Aren’t you?”

Colt snorts, sharp and humorless, and mutters something that sounds a lot like,Not friends with that bastard.

“Best friends?” the guy, Luke, says, shoving his hat back on. His rich black skin and warm undertone contrast sharply with the pale khaki of his rolled-up sleeves. He leans in, his voice low and conspiratorial. “They’ve been at it for as long as I’ve known them.” His eyes crinkle with amusement, and he chuckles. “I don’t think they’re capable of getting along.”

I don’t move. I just stand there between them, between Maverick and Colt as silence wraps around us like barbed wire. I glance from one to the other, and for the first time since walking back into their lives, I see it. Really see it.

The distance.

The anger.

The hurt.

My arrogance smacks me straight in the face.

Did I really think I could just show up after eight years and everything would fall back into place?

They don’t look at each other. They don’t look at me. Just two statues carved out of old memories and silent resentment.

When I left, they were brothers in everything but blood. Colt with his reckless grin and go-all-in energy. Maverick with his sharp focus and relentless drive. We were a mess of scraped knees and big dreams, each one of us balancing the other two.

Now, they’re standing like strangers. Enemies.

They don’t answer.

---