Page 94 of Lease to Love

“And I said I know you’re not.”

My voice dropped lower, sharper. “Then maybe stop telling me what I need.”

He leaned closer, keeping his voice controlled. “Maybe stop acting like I’m your enemy for noticing when something’s wrong.”

That one hit.

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.

Because he was right.

And because I was too overwhelmed to care.

I looked away from him and suddenly became aware of everything.

Every laugh. Every clink of crystal. The scrape of a chair against the floor. The low hum of conversation rolling around the ballroom like static.

A waiter passed too close behind me, a tray balanced above shoulder height, and my entire body flinched before I could stop it.

Roman noticed.

Of course he noticed.

“Summer—”

“Don’t.”

“Talk to me.”

“I said don’t.”

And then—

CRASH.

The sound came from directly behind us. The waiter had apparently lost his grip.

Metal hit marble. Not one tray. Several.

The explosion of it ripped through the room so violently that my body reacted before my mind could catch up.

Suddenly, I wasn’t in Bethesda anymore.

I was on a sidewalk in July.

I was eighteen.

The same block I'd learned to ride a bike on, the same corner store I'd run to a thousand times without a second thought, had turned into wrong place, wrong time in the space of one car rolling too slow.

There were gunshots. Screams. Blood.

My knees were burning against hot concrete.

My hands were slippery, and Autumn was in my arms.

Her eyes were already losing focus, but she was still trying to comfort me because that was who Autumn had always been.

“It’s okay, Sunny...”