“Then explain it.”
“Explain what?”
“This.” I gestured between us. “Because I know you.”
“No,” she said, firmer now. “You think you do.”
That landed.
Because she wasn’t wrong.
Not entirely.
For sixteen years, I’d known a girl in my memory.
This woman?
This woman was all sharp edges and locked doors.
She hesitated.
She should’ve walked away.
She didn’t.
Curiosity got her.
I could see it.
“You said high school,” she said. “What was your name again?”
The name sat heavy on my tongue.
“Hersh. Everyone here calls me Blaze.”
Her lips parted slightly.
There.
Another flicker.
Small.
Fast.
But real.
I stepped closer before I could stop myself. “You remember.”
Her eyes snapped to mine. “No.”
Too fast.
Too automatic.
Yeah.
She felt it.
