Page 5 of Together Is Where We Belong

His hands tightened around the tire iron as he loosened the lug nuts and dropped them to the ground. Once he’d loosened them all, he dropped the tire iron, causing one of the lug nuts to roll toward me. Without thinking, I leaned down to stop the lug nut from escaping, not noticing that Leo reached for it at the same time. Our hands brushed each other, causing me to still. The electricity from the slight brush of his fingers against mine caused me to gasp and pull back as I slowly lifted my gaze to his.

Leo’s jaw clenched as he briefly met my gaze, seemingly unbothered by our brief touch. He muttered something I couldn’t understand as he hastily grabbed the lug nut and dropped it beside the others. I stood and inwardly reeled at the brief touch while he finished the task.

When he was done, he let the SUV down and brushed his hands on the side of his jeans.

“You’ll want to see if they can plug the tire or get a new one as soon as possible. You shouldn’t be driving around on this donut for long,” he said as he lifted the tire into the back of the SUV and slammed the hatch once it was safely inside.

“Leo,” I finally spoke. I couldn’t manage anything else.

“Carolina,” he replied with a growl as he crossed his arms over his chest.

The use of my full name shouldn’t have jarred me, but it did. I wasn’t his cara or his firefly anymore.

“I,” I started to speak, but he cut me off.

“What are you doing here?” he asked as he leaned against my car, an angry gaze directed at me.

Gone was the man helping me with a flat. He clearly still held on to the disdain he had for me leaving. I wanted to shrink under his hateful gaze, but I squared my shoulders and refused to cower before him.

“I moved back,” I admitted, keeping my answers subtle; I wasn’t ready to face the truth of why I'd moved back.

“Since when?”

“A couple of days ago. How’ve you been?” I asked, deciding to start with a less heavy question before I told him.

He said nothing. Just stared at me with trepidation.

A few moments later he finally replied.

“Like you care,” he barked at me.

“Don’t act like that, Leo. I did care. I do care,” I whispered.

I knew he’d be angry when he first saw me, and I needed to rein in my responses if I didn’t want to mess everything up before I told him what I needed to tell him.

“You left, didn’t you?” he spat back.

I did. I left him. I left us. And I lied. He had every right to be mad back then. But I poured my heart out in voicemails. I begged and pleaded with him to call me so I could make everything right. He never called or reached out. The final call I’d made to him, he’d blocked my number, so I resorted to emails that eventually bounced back. Then numerous letters that remained unanswered. I tried to tell him every way I knew how. The only way I didn’t was by returning, something I just couldn’t do.

“I tried to call you a month after I left,” I admitted. We could start there, and then I could tell him. I couldn’t just blurt it out. My secret required a little more finesse than that.

“I know. I just didn’t care enough to answer,” he admitted.

Hearing his truth hurt. I willed the tears that filled my eyes not to fall. I couldn’t break down in front of him. I’d do that later tonight over my favorite bottle of wine.

“You should’ve answered my call, Leo. You have a…”

“Why?” he demanded before I could finish. “So you could tell me you never loved me again? No thank you. There was nothing left to say,” he said through clenched teeth.

“I had something important to tell you. You’d have known that if you’d have just returned one of my calls or texts. Or the numerous emails I sent. Or the letters I mailed.”

Just tell him, Carolina.

But I couldn’t get the words out. He obviously didn’t care enough to know what was so important all these years. Seeing his anger now, I knew he never opened my letters. He never knew my secret.

Dang you, Leo.

“I’m not doing this with you, Carolina. You said all you had to say before you left. There’s nothing left to say now. Make sure you get a new tire. And make sure when you see me, you walk the other way,” he replied and pushed off my SUV.