“Helicopters,” I confirmed, swallowing the rising knot in my throat. “This wasn’t how I wanted to tell you. I was going to explain why I chose my career and—”

“Take me home.” The demand was icy and flat as she turned away from me.

“Morgan, please. Let me explain.” My mind scrambled with panic. If I could just get her to listen, then she’d understand, right?

She opened the door.

“Where are you going?” I reached for her elbow.

She turned just enough to glare at my fingers on her sweater.

I removed them immediately. Fuck, this wasn’t going well.

“If you won’t take me home, I’ll walk. I can see the lighthouse from my deck, which means if I take this trail, the beach will lead me home.” She paused, her hand lingering on the handle.

“I’ll take you home.”

She shut the door, then stared out the windshield as I put the car in reverse—something I wished I could do with the last five minutes of my life. We pulled onto the pavement, and I headed toward our houses. The silence between us wasn’t just tense; it was sharp enough to draw blood—or break hearts.

I had to fix this. She wasn’t just a friend or the woman who lived next door. I cared about her, and I wasn’t willing to let whatever this was between us go without a fight. Fuck that. A battle. I put my mental armor on and prepared to go to war against her past in the hopes that she’d give me a chance for a future.

“When my parents died,” I began.

“No.” She shook her head. “You don’t get to speak. You lied to me.”

“I never told you I wasn’t a pilot.” I turned onto our street.

“Semantics don’t make you honest, Jackson,” she snapped.

When faced with which driveway to pull into, I chose mine, hoping it would give me more time. “I get that. And you’re right. I should have told you sooner, but I knew you’d react just like this.” I put the car in park. “And I wanted you to know me—not just what I did—before we had this conversa— Morgan!”

She was already out of the car.

I killed the ignition and took off after her, catching up midway between our yards. “Please, just give me a chance to explain.”

She spun around and stuck her finger in my face. “You’ve had all the time in the world to do that, and you chose not to!”

I barely managed to stop my momentum quickly enough to keep from running her over, and then she was off again, striding toward her house.

“Kitty, come on!” How the hell was I supposed to get her to understand if she wouldn’t even listen? I chased after her like the desperate fool I was.