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In worn jeans and work boots and a vaguely familiar beat-up leather jacket.
My feet rooted in place. “What are you doing here?” I managed, my voice sounding like I was drunk.
He lifted a brow. “Could ask you the same thing.”
I crossed my arms protectively over my chest and glanced over at Matthew’s house. Still quiet. “That’s none of your business.”
Green eyes that I’d seen in my fantasies for years dropped to take me in for the briefest of seconds before turning as frigid as the air between us where our breath clouds mingled. Then he crossed his arms to match mine, and I felt it down to my toes. My God, he was amazing to behold now. Those arms were thick under the leather now and looked like they could crush me. Or pin me to a wall without missing a beat.
I gritted my teeth and pushed that stupidity away. That was from another time. “Tobias send you?”
“Nobody sent me, Faith. Someone had to come drag your fool ass home.”
I barked out a laugh. “Oh my God, arrogant much?”
He stepped closer, and while my brain said to step back, my feet wouldn’t comply.
“Somebody tried to kill you two months ago, and you think the smart thing is to run off by yourself without telling anyone?” he said, his voice deep and smooth.
I flinched. “Seriously?”
He frowned. “Seriously, what?”
I lifted my chin. “You haven’t spoken to me since the day you came home, acting like I don’t exist, but the second I do something completely random that has nothing to do with you—”
“You want me to believe this is random?” he said, barking out a laugh.
“I don’t give a shit what you believe!” I said, waving a hand. “It’s not your business!”
I turned on feet that felt like they were buried in mud, focusing back on Matthew’s house, on the task I came for, but a calloused hand encircled my wrist, pulling me roughly against him. “Are you kidding me?” he growled. “Not my business?”
The lightning that shot up my arm to my heart at his touch pushed the air from my lungs and sent heat to every inch of my skin. It was the first time we’d touched in six years. Since...
His nearness, his smell, the warm leather of his jacket begged me to sink my fingers in it and pull him closer. Damn it, it threatened to pull me down. I looked up into his face; his gaze dropped to my mouth, and it was like hurtling back in time. I sucked in another breath and stepped back, steeling myself, tugging against his grip. It was futile.
“Let go,” I said through my teeth, my voice weaker than I wished it to be.
“My brother is married to your sister, Faith,” he said, not relenting. “That makes her family, and that makes it my business.”
I laughed sourly. “Oh, so you’re doing this whole save the damsel thing for Hope?” I winked. “Got it.”
His jaw tightened, and his green eyes sparked fire. “You’ve never been a damsel in need of anything,” he said, his voice thick and dark.
I glared up at him. “Damn straight.”
He leaned over me, our noses almost touching, anger rolling off him in waves. “Till now.”
He released my wrist, and the disappointment hit me like a wrecking ball. I had to get out of this space, out of his. To breathe, to think, to keep from pushing him away. Because I knew my traitorous hands would do the very opposite.
“I’m fine,” I said, stepping back into safer space.
He gestured toward me and crossed his arms again, too. “Clearly.”
“And I never asked you to be my savior,” I added, watching the muscles in his jaw clench. “So go home, Adam.”
Walk away.I turned and made it two steps. Keep walking.
“Your dad’s house burned to the ground yesterday.”
