Chapter 6: Chapter 6

Until he looked directly at me and caught me staring. I felt myself flush, and I quickly looked away.

“You keep watching me like you think I’m going to disappear.” He didn’t sound annoyed by that, so maybe he didn’t mind the staring.

“I’m still processing the fact that you reappeared.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “Did you really think you’d never see me again?”

“I told myself it would be for the best. If I never saw you again.” I looked down at my hands, reliving the long nights I couldn’t sleep because I was wondering where he was, what had happened to him. “It meant you made it.”

Jake snorted and shook his head. “I thought you knew me better than that. Well, I guess not. It’s not your fault. You have no idea who I am.”

Truer words had never been spoken.

“For what it’s worth,” Jake continued, “I’m not somebody who leaves a man in the field. You think I don’t know what you did for me? What you’ve always done for me? I wouldn’t be here at all if it weren’t for you.”