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He withdraws his hand, a flicker of hurt crossing his face.

“I never thought you were fragile,” he says quietly. “Not when you dealt with things that would’ve broken most people. That was never how I saw you. Not then. Not now. You were always the strongest person I knew.”

My lips press together as I take another right, bringing us onto Maple Road.

With all the Halloween decorations lining the houses, it almost feels like we’re driving straight into the past. Back to a time when neither of us was at our strongest, yet somehow, we managed to find strength in each other.

I park in front of my childhood home, unsurprised to find every light off at this hour.

When I look over at Milo, I realize he’s staring past me, out my window toward his old house.

“I… um… heard about your dad and Jennine. I’m sorry.”

Milo doesn’t even blink. He just keeps staring at the house.

Unlike mine, his looks exactly the same. Unsurprising, considering I’ve learned Jennine still lives there, even if his father doesn’t.

What did surprise me was learning Paul had left it to her. The idea of him turning his back on the home he shared with Lucia, the same house he watched his son grow up in, is hard to wrap my head around.

Unless he didn’t leave it to Jennine.

Unless…

“Do you still live here?”

He answers with a curt shake of his head.

“Of course you don’t. Stupid question.”

I turn my attention back to the road, feeling ridiculous for even asking.

Of course, Milo doesn’t live here anymore. He’s an adult, for crying out loud. He probably has some swanky loft closer to Main Street. Or maybe he snagged one of those condos I overheard Misty saying her husband built near the lake. Maybe he even has a house out there. He always did like being near the water.

One thought leads to another until I’m suddenly hit with the realization that I know next to nothing about the man sitting beside me.

I don’t know where he lives. I don’t know what he does for a living. I don’t know if he’s seeing someone or if he just got out of a relationship.

Shit. He might even be married for all I know. Just because there’s no wedding ring on his finger doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have a wife and kids waiting for him to return home.

Oh, my God! Am I sitting in a car at one in the morning with a married man?

“You’re thinking too hard,” Milo says, as if he had a direct line to every thought currently stampeding through my head. “If you want to ask me something, just ask.”

I have a million-and-one questions. Questions that might actually give me some insight into who Milo has become.

Still, instead of uttering any one of those questions, I go with the selfish one.

“Why are we here? Why did you pick this place, of all places?”

There’s so much sadness in his smile that it takes everything in me not to look away.

“I like coming here. It reminds me of better days. Back when nothing was certain and everything still had promise.”

My heart drums in my chest as I lose myself in those deep brown eyes of his. The same eyes that once held promises for my future, too.

“I get that.”

“Do you?” he asks, leaning closer.