The Truth About Us

“Fine. But I think you’re making a mistake.”

“Noted.”

“All right, then. I’ll see you tonight.”

“Bye.”

It was a miracle Cammie had any friends.

Shaking her head, Abby tipped her head back and closed her eyes, soaking in the sunshine. Enjoying the heat on her skin, she lay back on the cobbled path and inhaled the sweet scent of lilac. When her phone rang again, she slid it out of her pocket and answered.

“Cammie, would you give it a rest already?”

“You know you never gave me your number.” Abby’s stomach flipped at the sound of Kaden’s voice. “I had to get it from Cammie, which was a hard sell by the way.”

Darn it! Why didn’t she tell me?

Clearing her throat, Abby pushed back the surge of emotion fisting in her chest, trying to keep her cool. “Welcome to the twenty-first century,” she said, like hearing from him was no big deal.

“Well, it seems I didn’t have a choice. My father insisted now that things have changed.”

“Oh?” Abby

asked, feigning innocence.

“Yeah. Apparently, some anonymous person hired a lawyer to help my father negotiate his debt and handle the collectors. That, and he seemed to have suddenly come into some reward money.”

“Crap, yeah. I forgot. I think I read that in the paper somewhere.”

The line went dead. Abby held the phone away from her ear, certain he had hung up, but he hadn’t.

“You know, you’re supposed to talk in to these things,” she said.

“Were you just going to move without saying goodbye?” he asked, ignoring her jest.

Abby frowned. Their house literally went on the market yesterday. “Wait. How did you...”

She lifted her gaze out to the street, and the world fell away.

The boy at the end of her driveway sent her heart into overdrive.

He dropped his phone from his ear, and she watched him as he closed the distance. How many times had she wished for this moment, hoping it would come to fruition? In all the stress, fear, confusion, and pain of these last weeks, Kaden had been the one thing to keep her grounded. He had been her bright side through it all.

She stood to meet him, feeling more exposed than ever. He knew all her secrets. All her flaws. There was no more hiding. The whole world knew what a monster her grandfather was, but only Kaden knew she had probably been the one to turn him in.

Everything unspoken between them crackled in the silence as he closed the gap.

It felt like forever since she last spoke with him by the pool at her grandfather’s house, and the reminder of that last conversation weighed heavy on her mind as she took him in. The teal polo shirt he wore made his chocolate eyes pop. Though his hair looked shorter than she had last seen it, she noted the way it still fell over the top of his forehead, and when he moved, the scent of oranges and soap encapsulated her, a tiny time capsule taking her back to a time when everything was fine between them. Back to a time where he once pressed his lips to hers and told her how he felt about her.

She only hoped he still felt that way.

“Please tell me you’re not moving to Alaska,” he said.

She grinned. “No. Just beyond the Shenandoah.” Crossing her arms over her chest, she asked, “Does your dad know you’re here?”

“Yeah. But even if he disapproved, I’d still be here. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“What?”