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He resumes walking without acknowledging my words.
He keeps his stare fixed on where we’re headed and his hand tightly around mine.
We walk a few more minutes while I keep trying to make small talk without much help from him.
“You’re quite the chatterer,” I say, trying to still my steps beside him.
“I said no talking.”
But I don’t listen. This is ridiculous. He can't do this to me with no explanation. “You’re not even going to tell me where you’ve been? Have you been here the whole time?”
“I’ve been here and there,” he drawls. “I’ve been everywhere.”
“You sound like a Dr. Seuss book.”
This earns me a glance and a small twinkle in his eyes. “What do you want me to say, Rhi?”
The use of Rhi, instead of Rhiannon, makes me believe we’re still connected and not the strangers we’ve become.
“I just want to know what happened to you.”
He continues his strides at a quick pace, and I have no choice but to keep up. “I did what I had to do. The end,” he says.
And the conversation is over. He probably won’t ever tell me, so, I try a new angle. “Why kidnap me?”
He doesn’t slow, navigating us through the trunks of trees as we trudge deeper into the woods. “I need you, that’s why.”
Words I’ve wanted to hear since I was fifteen years old fall from his lips, but not in the meaning I wished back then.
“Why?”
He finally stops, his breath coming out in quick short bursts. “You sure ask a lot of damn questions.”
“And get no answers,” I retort.
Giving up on finding out any useful information, I let him lead me again, and we walk in silence until we come to a clearing with a small lake. The water ripples as the wind rushes over. He drops my hand and sits on a small patch of grassland. I could run, but where? I drop down beside him.
“Do you remember the night of your fourteenth birthday party?” he asks with a small smile.
“I was so scared that night.” And I was. I think back on my father's face when he saw Xavier with me.
“Why didn't you stay in Maine?”
“How do you know I went to Maine?”
He stares at me, his hair gently rustling in the breeze. “Lucky guess?”
“Have you been keeping tabs on me all these years?”
He laughs, but there's no humor there. “No, but I do know a few things.”
My mind takes off like a jet engine, wondering what all he knows about my life. And as much as I want to ask, I keep the conversation on neutral ground. He's talking, so that's a win in my book.
“It’s peaceful here,” I finally say after a few minutes.
“Yeah, I haven’t been out here much.”
“Too busy?”
