I gave a half-hearted shrug. “I can’t help it. I want to know what it means that she’s back in town. It must mean something.”

I’d spent years trying to get over her, and it felt like they might as well not have happened. The wound she’d caused by leaving felt as raw as it had when we were young. Although, perhaps it had festered a little.

We’d had something real. Something that mattered.

Or so I’d thought.

I’d never been able to work out what had been true and what must have been in my imagination because, if we’d loved each other the way I’d thought we had, she’d never have cut me off so abruptly.

“It means she’s selfish,” Asher said without an ounce of doubt in his voice. “If she gave a crap about you, she wouldn’t be here, stirring up old feelings.”

I frowned because I got where he was coming from, but I also didn’t understand why she’d be here if she’d moved on without looking back as I’d once believed.

“Stop thinking so hard,” he chided. “It shouldn’t matter why she’s here. You need to steer clear of her so she can’t get her claws into you again.”

“I know.” I grabbed my water bottle and drank just so I’d have something to do with my hands. “But I never connected with anyone like I did with her.”

“And you never had your heart broken that badly either,” he reminded me.

It was true. Maybe if she’d simply vanished from the face of the earth, I’d have eventually gotten over it—although I doubted that—but when I’d unexpectedly seen her in a film a couple of years later, while I’d been visiting a friend in Christchurch, all of those old hurts had resurfaced. I’d wanted to walk out as soon as I realized who was on the screen, but I hadn’t been able to make myself move, so I’d sat there and watched her pretend to fall in love with another man. I’d known it was fake, but I’d seethed, and when they’d kissed, something inside me had broken. Perhaps they’d been acting, but she’d still kissed him for half the world to see.

When I’d left the cinema, my world had been fractured. Ever since then, no matter how well the township tried to shield me, evidence of her existence slipped through the cracks. It had been utter hell.

Now, she was back. And I wished she’d stayed gone.

“Fuck.”

“Mm,” Asher agreed. “Amen to that.”

My phone buzzed, and I checked it. The moniker “The Sheriff” filled the screen. That was our nickname for my older brother Nate who was now in charge of the local police force.

“Hey,” I answered.