All Roads Lead Home ✓

24 | UNFINISHED BUSINESS

Her eyes darkened, and she swallowed hard. "I know that. I meant what are you doing here?"

The tone of her voice warned him he wasn't welcome. But he couldn't let that change his plans. "I wanted to see you."

"After all these years? Why?"

He swallowed. This was harder than he imagined. "Lately, I've been thinking about you, and I..."

She cut him off. "Why in the world would you do that when you thought so little of me before?"

She was right; it sounded lame even to his own ears. He advanced on her and she held her ground. No longer a fragile, innocent girl, she glared at him. Maybe he wasn't the only guy who'd hurt her. "That isn't true. I've always thought about you."

She stopped mixing and held the spatula in midair. "What do you want from me, Flynn? Forgiveness? Absolution? Letting me believe I meant something to you? Breaking my heart?" She dropped the spatula, pushed her hand in front of him, and made the sign of the cross. Definitely not Mariana, who treated religion like a bad taste in her mouth, even though every Sunday when they were kids, she had always sat in the third row from the pew with her parents. "You're absolved. Go on with your life."

He reached out to take her hand, but she backed away.

"You did mean something to me." His voice broke, and he swallowed, trying to conjure up sufficient words. Falling short.

That got a humorless laugh from her. "Once a liar, always a liar. You should leave. I have someone in my life now and if he finds you here, I'll have to explain more than I want." She turned her back to Flynn and moved pans around on the shelf.

Albeit defeated, he plowed on. "Well, if you're so in love, why are you still pissed at me? What happened between us shouldn't matter anymore."

She spun on him, tears flowed down her cheeks. "I loved you, you idiot! You were my first love! My first everything! A girl never gets over that." She swiped at her nose, then covered her face with her hands.

Flynn rushed around the counter and took her in his arms.

She shoved him, glaring up at him like a vengeful goddess with ice in her eyes. "Oh, I understand. Thought you'd get a little stray before you tie the knot? And who else better than me, right?" She snarled,"The poor ones are always so easy."

He crossed his arms. "That's not fair. I never thought of you that way. What did you want from me?  I was eighteen years old." God, he'd said it like that fixed everything but from the way she was shaking with rage, it didn't.

"What'd I want? A phone call. Text. Letter. Anything that made me feel like I mattered. I waited, Flynn. Weeks. Months. You used me and then pretended it never happened."

He took another step forward, but she backed away again.  To fight the urge to hold her, he put his hands in his pockets. "You mattered. It's just I was at school. You were here. Living five hours away, I didn't see how we could..."

"How we could what? Keep screwing? Yeah, you're right. That was impossible which made it clear that's all you wanted from me. Do you get the picture now? You made me feel like nothing more than a good time." Her eyes were glassy, but her voice unwavering. It had always been easy. Her eyes always gave away her emotions, even when her voice was full of anger.

He couldn't fight it any longer. He pulled his hands from his pockets and wrapped her in his arms. The memory of her beneath him flooded back with such force, he thought his heart would explode. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

She broke free and glared at him with so much hate in her eyes now, he staggered backwards. Her words dripped with venom. "Go home, Flynn. There's nothing for you here." She pushed past him and slammed the door behind her.