He'd changed for me. He'd spent eight years becoming someone different, someone better, and I'd never known.
What else didn't I know?
Because that kiss had told me something I'd spent eight years trying to deny.
I wasn't over Knox Parker.
Chapter 7: Knox
Idrove home in the rain, stripped out of my wet clothes, and lay in bed staring at the ceiling while the storm raged outside. Every time I closed my eyes, I felt her. The press of her mouth against mine. The way her fingers had fisted in my shirt. The small sound she'd made when I pushed her against the wall.
I was a goddamn idiot.
I'd promised myself I wouldn't touch her and wouldn’t complicate things. I sure as hell wouldn't drag her back into my mess until I'd told her the truth about everything.
But then she'd kissed me, and every promise I'd made was forgotten.
The storm passed around three in the morning. I watched the clouds break apart as the stars came out and tried to figure out what the hell I was going to do.
I had to tell her about Cal and explain what had really happened eight years ago. She deserved to know, and I was tired of carrying this secret.
But telling her meant destroying her relationship with the only family she had left. It meant making her choose between believing me or believing the uncle who'd raised her after her mom got sick.
There was no good option here. There never had been.
I got in my truck and drove to Cal's.
***
She was on the back porch when I pulled up, sitting in one of Cal's chairs, coffee cup in hand, wearing a sundress that showed off her shoulders and made my mouth go dry. Her hair was down, still damp from a shower, curling at the ends.
She looked up when she heard my truck and our eyes met across the yard.
Neither of us looked away.
I grabbed my tools and headed toward the deck. Toward her. Every step felt like walking into fire.
"Morning," I said.
"Morning."
The silence stretched. Loaded with everything we weren't saying.
"About last night," I started.
"Don't." She held up a hand. "Not yet. I'm still..." She trailed off, staring into her coffee. "I need to think."
"Okay."
"Okay." She stood. "I'm going inside. I have the day off, so I'll be around. Try not to..." She gestured vaguely. "Be distracting."
A smile tugged at my mouth. "I'll do my best."
She paused at the door and looked back at me with something complicated in her eyes.
"You said you'd explain everything. I'm going to hold you to that."
"I know."