“This is the piece we picked up from the garage sale?”

I laughed. “One and the same. It looks a little different, huh?”

Ford circled the credenza, hunching to get a closer look in places. “This is incredible. You could sell it for a nice chunk of change.”

I shrugged. “Sometimes, I do. Other times, I keep them. But I’m never going to rip anyone off.”

“I wasn’t suggesting that. But you deserve to get paid for all of your hard work.”

My cheeks heated. “Thank you.”

Ford leaned against the shelves on the wall of the workshop, his gaze going from the credenza to me and back again. “You restored all the furniture pieces in the bar, didn’t you?”

I pressed my lips together. It was moments like these when I felt a million miles away from Ford, like he didn’t know me at all. Kenna, Caelyn, Hunter, they all knew how hard I’d slaved over bringing The Catch back to life. They’d brought me lunch or dinner as I worked through the day and into the night. They came to garage and estate sales with me as I hunted for bargains. They helped me haul and paint. And they knew how much it all meant to me. Ford had missed all of that.

“Most of the pieces in the bar are things I fixed up. But not everything.” Who was I kidding? It was ninety-nine percent mine.

Ford swallowed hard, as if the information pained him in some way. “Why are you hiding from me?”

I reared back at the question. I wasn’t hiding from him. I opened my mouth to say so and then stopped myself. Wasn’t that exactly what I was doing? Ford Hardy terrified me. He was the tallest cliff I could jump off of, the greatest rush and worst potential for injury. I kept holding myself back from him because if he didn’t have all my pieces, then maybe it wouldn’t hurt so badly when he left. Or even worse, if he stayed and found someone else to love.

Gathering tears burned the backs of my eyes as I let out a shaky breath. “For so many reasons.”

His knuckles turned white as he gripped the edge of the bookcase. “Maybe you could share some of those with me.”

I let out a little laugh, but it was tinny in its falsehood. He wanted me to say it out loud? That I loved him but couldn’t have him? That one day he would leave again? That I’d danced in my sister’s shadow for most of my life, and I couldn’t risk doing that in a relationship, too? My stomach turned at the thought of him comparing me to Vi. Her classic beauty and grace to my brashness and scarred body. I couldn’t look into Ford’s eyes and see the truth there.

“You don’t trust me, do you?”