Page 169 of Where Roads Lead

She didn’t have to be scared. And I was about to tell her that when we pulled into her driveway, only to find my spot otherwise occupied.

“Who the hell drives a Mercedes?” I looked over to her, finding her white as a sheet. “Elsie?”

But she was muttering under her breath, frantically unbuckling her seatbelt and leaping from the truck.

“Oh, God, Will. I am so sorry, but you have to go home.”

I sure as hell was not going home. Not while she looked that thoroughly freaked out.

“What? What are you talking about? Who’s here?”

She poked her head into the dark Mercedes, but it was empty. I followed Elsie as she rounded to the other side of the house, toward the front porch.

Then I saw him.

A man, on her front porch, his fist banging against the door, stopping only when he heard our footsteps.

“Please, Will,” Elsie whispered to me under her breath. “I’ll explain later, but just go.”

But the man was already turning, his expression grim when his steely eyes landed on us.

“Elspeth,” he said, sounding irritated.

“Andrew,” she responded, sounding guilty.

“Elspeth?” I echoed, not having a single clue what was going on.

“It’s Scottish,” she groaned, and then, turning her attention back to the prick in the tailored clothes, asked the question I’d been dying to know myself. “What are you doing here?”

I might’ve used a bit more colorful language if I’d asked myself, but the sentiment was relatively the same.

“Your mother has been worried sick about you. She asked me to come find you and bring you home.”

“Are you on her payroll now, too?” I scoffed. “Why the hell would you drop everything to track me down?”

“You didn’t come home for Thanksgiving, Elspeth.” His voice was frigid and disapproving. “You knew how that would look, but once again, you didn’t care.”

“I thought that what I do doesn’t reflect on you anymore. Wasn’t that the whole point of breaking it off?”

“That’s why I’m here. You and I need to talk. About everything that happened.” He paused, as if he were admitting defeat by even acknowledging it. “I figured you’d take off for a week, clear your head, and when you got back, we’d have the chance to go over it all. But it’s been months, Elsie.”

“Yes, Andrew. We have calendars here as well. But really, I don’t see that there’s anything for us to quote unquote go over, so you can open up your Waze app, navigate back to Boston, and have the best life, okay?”

His jaw ticked as he stared at her with infuriated impatience. A look I might’ve worn myself on occasion, but it felt wrong coming from anyone else.

“That’s it? That’s all you have to say after I came all this way to find you?”

“Yup, that’s the extent of what I’ve got.”

“We were going to be married, Elspeth. Don’t you think I deserve a little more than that?”

My chest gave way at the comment.

Married? She was going to marry this asshole?

“This is the guy?” I started, mouth dry, words bitter. The guy who broke your heart?

She turned to me sheepishly, but I had to know.