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“What do you mean?” he asked.
“You vanished out of my life over five years ago without so much as a goodbye. Then you show up randomly out of nowhere in the middle of the woodsrightwhere I happen to be?”
“I just told you. I’ve been looking for you for years, but you sure don’t make it easy. You must have changed your identity forty times. I’ve been tracking you for a long time.”
“That was the idea, Kingston. I didn’t want to be found. But now you have, you can go back to wherever it is you came from.”
I started to turn away from him, but he grabbed my arm.
“Don’t touch me.”
His hand swept through his hair in a gesture of exasperation, “This isn’t at all how I imagined this would go down.”
“Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you.”
“Riley—
“What makes you give a damn now, Kingston? And how did you even find me?”
He opened his mouth but then quickly closed it.
As much as I loved Kingston, and as much as I thought I knew everything about him, he always had secrets. Things he would never admit to or never say, but I knew they were there.
“I can’t believe this is how you greet family after all this time.”
“You’re not my family.”
He jolted back and his cheery grin vanished. Every expression crossing his face stabbed me in the guts. I could read him so easily. Every one of those expressions imprinted a memory on my past that I could never forget.
I cared about him way too much back then. No way would I make the same mistake now.
“The hell I’m not.”
“You used to be my stepbrother, but now,” I shook my head, “You’re just another stranger.”
He positioned himself in front of me, serving as a stark reminder of his imposing stature compared to my own. “We both know that’s bullshit. You know me and I know you. Iknowyou. Every part of you.”
I ignored the heat pooling deep in my belly at the insinuation behind his words.
“You didn’t have to sneak around in the woods scaring people just to see me,” I told him. “If you wanted to talk to me, you could have just walked up and started talking.”
“That’s what I just did.” He frowned with his head on one side. “Why are you so tense? And what’s with the rock? What’s going on?”
“That’s none of your business.” I tossed the rock aside and turned my back on him. “You’re leaving and I’m leaving, so now neither of us will be out here. See you around.”
I walked away from him and headed higher up the mountain. Kingston Heller was the absolute last person on Planet Earth I wanted to talk to now or ever.
“Why have you been on the run all this time, Riley?” he called after me. “Why do you keep moving from city to city and changing your identity all the time?”
“I have my reasons,” I yelled over my shoulder without turning around. “If you cared about me and wanted to be a part of my life, you never would have left.”
“I’ve been looking for you for years!” he called louder, but he didn’t move to follow me. “I didn’t vanish. You did. I came back to find you four years ago and you were long gone. I’ve been looking for you ever since.”
I stopped dead in my tracks. A mixture of fury and heartache tossed and struggled in my chest. I shouldn’t talk to him. I shouldn’t dignify him with the time of day.
I couldn’t walk away from him, though. I never could do that. I couldn’t walk away from what I carried with me in my own heart and soul.
Just walk away.I kept telling myself that, but it didn’t work.Just walk away right now.
