Page 18 of False Start

Then, I’d touched her for the first time.

I could still hear the way her breath had hitched when I did, how my heart had been hammering out of my chest thinking she was going to tell me to stop.

But she hadn’t.

“So, what do you think?” Madelyn asked when we’d finished the tour, ending in the kitchen where we’d began.

I leaned against the counter again with a smile on my lips and that memory still playing vividly in my mind.

“Do you remember when we snuck into Waterford Lakes?”

Her eyes widened, cheeks flushing a light pink.

I laughed a little when she didn’t respond, shaking my head. “We thoughtthatwas how the rich and famous lived. And now, here we are, grown ass adults touring a house at least four times the size.”

Madelyn’s jaw was tight as she looked at the floor. “That was a nice house.”

“I seem to remember liking the pool quite a bit…”

I arched a brow when Madelyn’s gaze met mine, and for a moment, I thought I saw the same heat and desire in her eyes. Did she remember what it was like to be two kids fooling around for the first time, all that excitement and nervous energy?

I thought maybe she would return my smile and let me take her down memory lane.

Instead, she swallowed, hardening even more as she laid out the binder with the house stats on the granite counter.

“They’re asking for six point two,” she said, leaving off themillionpart of that statement. “But I think we could offer six and get away with it. It’s been on the market for two months now. I realize this is at the high-end of your range, but I thought you’d appreciate the lake view and the options for your gym.”

I hated that she changed the subject, that she was being so cold with me. But I also hated that Iwasn’tbeing cold with her.

After what she did, after how she betrayed me… it should have beenmewho was pissed off.

Instead, I found myself scratching my head and trying to recall why I’d been so angry to begin with.

We were young. We were fuckingkids.Of course, at that time in my life, I didn’t realize it. Everything felt big. Everything felt like the end of the world.

Especially when my father made a fool of himself, enough so that the whole community turned their backs on us and forced us out of town.

Madelyn and her parents included.

I sniffed. “I do love the view, and the access to the lake. The pool is nice. I love all the dark wood. But…” I looked around, trying to figure out how to name what was off. “It just feels a little…”

“Old?”

I cringed. “Yeah.”

She nodded, making a note in her binder. “That’s alright, this will help me figure out what your style is, since you didn’t really give me anything to go on there.”

I chuckled. “I’m going to have to start wearing armor around you, with all these little jabs you love to throw.”

“Have you gotten soft in your old age?” she teased, arching a brow at me as she shoved her sleeves up. “The Kyle I knew could dish it right back.”

My chest sparked with the challenge, with how she was letting me in a bit. She was smiling. She was teasing. I saw just a glimpse of the girl I used to know.

But then my eyes caught on her left arm, on the dark coloring of skin above her watch.

There were four bruises.

And there was no mistaking they were from a hand.