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I knew Winter Reign.
Her fight or flight instincts were stronger than anyone’s I had ever witnessed before, you would have thought she spent her childhood getting beat. When things were too much for her, she always ran.
And I always knew exactly where to find her.
I excused myself from the conversation I wasn’t even paying attention to and made my way past the groups of people. My feet carried me in the same direction I saw Winter heading. As I push through the French doors that led out onto the veranda, the warm summer breeze greeted me. There were two smaller groups of people standing outside talking.
Two of the older men nodded their heads at me in greeting and I tipped mine back in response but didn’t stop to speak to any of them. Winter was nowhere to be seen but I already knew that would be the case.
Stepping off the cobblestone walkway, I walked through the grass toward one of the trees on the top of the small hill that the building sat on. Down below was a pond, but there was a large maple tree that looked down at it with a bench. The bench and tree were in memory of Winter’s grandfather.
It was her quiet place, her place of solitude when the people around here got to be too much.
My heart skipped a beat when I saw the outline of her sitting in the dark. Her heels were discarded on the ground beside the bench and she was staring down at the pond. Crickets sang their summer song as I padded through the grass to where she was.
I stopped just behind the bench.
“That was quite the performance with Mrs. Danbury.”
Winter’s body grew rigid as she straightened her spine. She didn’t dare to turn around and look at me. Her delicate hands were folded in her lap. She remained silent, unmoving like a statue, but I saw the way her breathing shifted. Shallow and ragged.
She was sitting on the left side of the bench. I moved around to the front of it and sat down on the opposite side. The night breeze carried the smell of her perfume and I closed my eyes, inhaling deeply as I resisted the urge to reach out to make sure she was real.
Words failed me as the silence settled between us. What could I possibly say to her to fill the void? So much time had passed between us and I was the one to blame for it all. Hell, I didn’t even know if she was seeing someone else or not.
The thought alone made my blood boil. My grip tightened around my glass of bourbon and my other fist was in my lap.
I didn’t give two fucks if she were seeing someone or not. I was here for her now. Everyone else was entirely obsolete.
“What are you doing here, Malakai?”
Her voice was barely audible but the defeat hung heavily in her words. If I weren’t so in tune with her, I may have missed it, but I knew Winter Reign better than I knew myself.
“I came here for you.”
An exasperated sigh escaped her and her shoulders sagged a fraction of an inch. “I don’t mean why you came out here. I meant Orchid City. Shouldn’t you be at some golf tournament or something?”
She still hadn’t looked at me and kept her gaze trained on the pond.
“You’re why I am here.” I took a sip of my bourbon and didn’t offer her anything more than that.
Winter slowly turned her head to the side to look at me. And when she looked at me, she looked directly into my soul every goddamn time. “How could you have possibly known I would be here?”
“I didn’t necessarily know you would be here tonight,” I admitted, my voice quiet as I stared back into the green hues swirling in her irises under the moonlight. “Your parents came up in a conversation with my mother. She mentioned they were leaving their estate to you and you were coming back to beautiful Orchid City.”
Her eyes widened. “So you just decided you would come home too?”
“This place has never been my home.” I stared at her as my heart pounded against my rib cage. “It was always you. You were my home, Winter.”
She abruptly jumped from the bench and onto her feet as she shook her head. “No. No. We’re not going to be doing this.”
“I’m afraid it looks like we already are.”
She bent down beside me as she viciously grabbed her heels. “You don’t get to waltz back into my life like you didn’t break my heart six years ago.” Her eyes were borderline wild and filled with emotion as she stared down at me and crossed her arms over her chest. “You never once tried to talk to me again.”
“You don’t know what I did, Winter.”
She narrowed her eyes and her gaze was colder than the ice she skated on. “Nice try, but I’m not taking the bait. I don’t want to know, nor do I care.”
