He hadn’t felt this lost, this helpless in a very long time. He was seventeen again, fifteen, with no one. If she walked away from him again, he’d have no one. “You know my greatest fear? It’s that I’m not . . . that I’m not separate from you. That this being half of myself is what I’m stuck with for the rest of my life, because I don’t know how to be whole without you. It’s why I found my way back here, to you, because I couldn’t stand to be that way anymore. Why isn’t that enough?”

She swallowed as though it hurt her throat to do it. Had she not just been in that room with him? In that bed? Wasn’t she tired of this, of fighting to stay away from him? For so damn long.

“Because you know how to heal, and when you do, you’ll walk away. You did once.”

“What? You threw me out. You let someone convince you that I wasn’t good enough for you. First it was my being the boy who lives in a housekeeper’s quarters, now it’s being the man on a calendar. Do your father’s words really mean so much that nothing else matters?”

A ravaged sound tore from her throat. Their past would never leave them alone. A million storms passed in her eyes.

“Ash, please, please say what you’re thinking. Don’t shut me out.” He reached for her. But she shook her head so violently he pulled back.

“That’s what you think of me? That I bought into that nonsense my father believed? That’s who you think I am? Or was it just easy to damn me like that so you could move on and leave me?”

“I’m not the one who left you! You walked away from me. You chose him.”

Yes, he had ignored what she’d asked. Just that once.

I do not want you to meet my father, Rico. Please. Let me take care of it.

But her father had called and left a message with his aunt. Tell him to come see me. Tell him if he tells Ashna, he’ll regret it. She’s underage, having him thrown in jail won’t be hard.

Wow, he’s all grace and warmth, Rico remembered thinking with all the cockiness of an eighteen-year-old. He hadn’t believed the jail thing. Ashna would kill someone before she let that happen. His aunt had been terrified, but Rico had been sure he’d charm the man once he met him. So he’d gone. At the appointed time, as though his girlfriend’s father were a judge and Rico had a hearing.