Page 8 of A Forgotten Heart
He started to turn on his heel.
“Don’t walk away again.” Her voice wobbled, a hint of urgency in her tone.
The reminder of how they’d parted five years ago was another punch.Choose me.Tell them the truth. The words he’d spoken so long ago echoed through his mind, heartache chasing them.
“We need to work this out.” The plea glittered in her eyes.
There was a time he would’ve given her everything.
All at once, he was tired. Suffocated by emotions he’d thought he’d gotten over. “Go home, Elsie.”
He had to walk past her to get to the newspaper office and Ed. He tried to skirt around her but only took a step before she blocked his path. “Nick, please. If you ever had any real feelings for me at all?—”
“If?”
She must’ve heard the dangerous tone in his voice. He hadn’t meant to lean over her, but she’d riled him up until he couldn’t think straight. “Elsie, I?—”
Patch started to bark.
Elsie jumped. Tears reflected in her haunted eyes, but he still read the fiery determination.
“You couldn’t have had real feelings for me,” she said. “Not when you were willing to walk away so quickly.”
How could she say that? She was the one who’d as much as told him to go.
Patch barked louder.
Nick leveled a gloved finger at Elsie. “You walked away from me first. We can’t pretend it never happened.”
She gave a long blink, as if she didn’t understand him.
It was too difficult to look at her. He couldn’t do it without feeling the old tug of attraction, the ghost of what they’d sharedbetween them. And the betrayal that had turned into something bitter on top of all the rest.
“We’ll never be friends,” he stated. There was no misunderstanding that.
Bang!
Nick startled.
What—
The doorframe two feet behind them splintered, shards of wood flying, as a second bang rent the air.
A bullet.
Elsie’s mouth opened in a silent gasp. The moment seemed frozen, jagged, as realization settled.
Someone was shooting at them.
And Nick had only one thought.
Get her to safety.
Another distant crack shattered the stillness. Every cell in Elsie’s body jolted. Before she could react, Nick’s shoulder rammed into her, knocking her sideways. She lost her footing and stumbled.
Was that—was someone shooting? At them?
She froze, her terrified gaze flitting from building to building, but all she could see was a wall of white snow.
