Page 13 of Where She Belongs

She offered him a sheepish smile. “That’s me.” Rylee wrapped her arms around herself and shivered.

He frowned and jolted into action. “You okay?” His focus shifted to the storm. “Did you walk all the way here in this weather? It might be warmer these days, but the rain is still chilly around here.”

Rylee nodded, making a face. “There… um… there was a problem at my place.”

His frown deepened.

Her teeth were starting to chatter. “Could I come in?”

He straightened. “Yeah, of course.” Then he stepped aside. “I’ll… just go get you… a change of clothes.”

“Oh, you don’t have to⁠—”

“Ma’am, you’re wet and covered in mud. You’ll catch your death if I let you stay in those clothes.” He left before she had a chance to tell him all she needed was help with her power and whatever was in her basement. Once she was alone, she glanced around. The sitting room to her left was familiar. So familiar that she was accosted by several memories all at once.

Rylee propped her chin into her hands, after rolling onto her stomach. She kicked her legs as she stared down at Tate’s paper. His stance mirrored her own. Jason sat cross-legged on the couch with a book in his hands. Her eyes lifted to Tate’s face. “You’re really good at math.”

Tate grinned as he scribbled an answer to his problem. “You’ll be good at it, too.”

“How do you know?” Rylee squinted at the numbers. “Daddy says he’s not that good at math. He likes working outside more.”

Tate’s focus darted upward then he tilted his head in that way she liked so much. “Because I’ll teach you.”

“Really?” It came out full of wonder. “You’d do that?”

“Yeah. Of course I will.”

“Pinky promise?” She held out her finger.

He stared at it, then flicked his eyes up to hers and grinned before wrapping his own little finger around it. “Pinky promise.”

Rylee blinked out of the memory and turned in the direction of the kitchen.

No. It wasn’t possible.

Her head whipped around, searching for any evidence that she was wrong. It wasn’t possible. It’d been so long. There was no way this house still belonged to…

Footsteps stopped in the hallway and Rylee whirled to face him. She tried to merge her memories of the boy she knew with the man standing before her, but she couldn’t. The boy she followed around like a lost puppy had brown hair and brown eyes. But the vision standing in the hallway wasn’t a little boy.

Her throat dried as he stepped closer to her. His own eyes narrowed as if he were attempting to figure out the same thing. There was only one question on her mind. Was he Tate? Or Jason?

She eyed him as he continued to close the distance between them, a bundle of clothing in his hands. When he didn’t speak, she murmured, “Thank you.”

Their hands grazed, and the shock of the contact ran clean up her arm. She was unsettled but he seemed unfazed. Rylee stared down at the clothes in her hands, her whole body warming at his proximity. She felt drawn to him in ways she hadn’t been drawn to anyone her aunt had tried to set her up with.

Still, he didn’t utter a word and she forced out a nervous laugh. “I’m sorry, what did you say your name was?” She lifted her gaze to meet his. Those deep, brown depths stared right back at her. One side of his mouth twitched into the beginnings of a smile.

“I didn’t.”

She fought the urge to point out it was good manners to introduce oneself in situations like this one, but she held her tongue and continued to watch him expectantly.

Finally, he put her out of her misery.

“Name’s Tate.”

Rylee nearly dropped the bundle in her hands. Her mouth fell open and amusement lit his eyes.

“And you are? I noticed you at the town meeting, but I didn’t catch your name.” There was something familiar in the way he cocked his head. It was the slight upturn of his chin, and his right eye squinted just enough that not many would catch it.