Page 84 of Ransom

"And you raised them?"

"Sort of. They were all pretty tough by the time we found each other, but I tried to be there for them. To be the kind of person Robert was. That my dad was."

"But you were just a kid too."

"I stopped being a kid the day I left here, Blair."

Her lips press together tightly, a storm of emotions in her eyes. Finally, she asks the question she's been asking all along. The one I wasn't willing to answer.

"Why did you go?"

She sits there, shoulders curved inward, and I see that seventeen-year-old girl again. The one who believed in me when no one else did. The one who saw past my anger and my pain. The one I destroyed to protect.

And I realize I have a choice to make.

All this time, I've been protecting Robert's memory.

Protecting Blair's memories of him.

But maybe, the truth is what she needs. Even if she can never love me again. Even if it's been too long. Maybe she deserves to know exactly what I did.

And why I did it.

"Can we go for a drive?"

27

BLAIR

My hands grip the steering wheel, knuckles white against the worn leather. The engine's purr is the only sound in the cab as I guide my Ford onto the dirt road. Ransom's presence fills the cab, his broad shoulders and long legs making the space feel smaller than it used to be.

Everything about him is different—the silver threading through his dark hair, the deeper lines around his eyes, the expensive watch on his wrist. Yet underneath it all, there are hints of the boy I remember. Those glimpses are why I said yes to going for a drive. That boy shattered my heart, and it still doesn't make sense. Everything I knew about him back then convinced me he would never hurt me.

But he did. And I spent way too long after that not trusting my judgment.

The truck bumps along the uneven ground until I spot the clearing where we used to park as teenagers. I kill the engine. The silence settles heavy between us, broken only by the tick-tick-tick of the cooling engine.

I stare out the window at the field down the hill. The grass is still short, but so green. The last time we were here together,it was a beginning. This time, I don't know what the fuck it is. The questions I've carried for over twenty years press against my chest.Why did you really leave? What made you stay away so long? Did you ever miss me the way I missed you?

My fingers drum against the steering wheel. The leather seat creaks as Ransom shifts beside me. The air feels thick with tension, but I can't figure out if it's coming from him or me. There's a lot of history to unpack, and I have to fight the urge to start the truck and get the fuck out of here.

But those questions dance on my tongue. After all these years, I could finally know the truth. But fear holds them back—fear that his answers might hurt worse than the story I've been telling myself.

"Do you remember that night?" he asks, breaking the silence between us. He's staring out across the field, and I don't have to ask him what night. I know. It's the night that started things for us. The night we went from friends to more. The last time we were here together.

"Yeah, I remember."

"My feelings for you were getting out of control by that point. The idea that you would go on a date with Adam made me so fucking mental that I couldn't keep away."

"Is that why you were here? I never asked." I adjust my grip on the steering wheel, knuckles whitening slightly.

"Yeah. That was why. I tucked myself behind a tree back there," he turns, pointing behind us, "and stewed. I was close enough to see the two of you through his back window. You were too fucking close to him. I wanted to run over here, tear him out of the truck, and beat him to a fucking pulp." Ransom shifts in the passenger seat, his broad shoulders tense against the worn fabric.

"So you did."

"Basically."

28

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