Page 20 of My Secret to Protect

Missy grabs my arm. ‘Wait, what are you…’ I don’t get to finish my question as she steps down from the porch and calls out.

‘Hey!’ She waves as he looks up and raises his hand.

‘Hi.’

God, his voice is so deep. Was it always that deep?

‘Are you the new owner?’

Missy approaches the hedge between the two yards, and he does the same, so I do, too, but he hasn’t looked at me. He is still smiling while my heart is racing, and I don’t think I can talk.

‘Um, yeah, Arlo.’

‘I’m Missy, welcome.’ She grins, but I can’t speak.

He holds out his hand for hers, and she takes it. I stare at how small her hand looks in his. Then he turns his attention to me.

‘Bree?’ Arlo asks, finally seeing me, and the shock that matches my own causes him to frown and heat races across the surface of my skin as my heart beats an impossible rhythm behind my ribs. Arlo. It's reallyhim, after twenty years he just shows up and the whoosh of my blood in my veins is loud in my ears as my body tries to process the shock.

‘Wait, do you two know each other?’ Missy gestures between us, and Arlo’s gaze holds mine. ‘Um, I’m going to…’ Missy, reading the room, backs away and heads back inside as Arlo and I stay locked in a confused stare across the rose bushes.

‘Why are you here?’ I ask, my voice sounding strange, robotic almost, but quiet, too quiet.

‘I bought this house.’

He thumbs behind him, and my tiredness forces shock to give way to paranoia. Have I got this all wrong? Could it have been Arlo this whole time? His showing up here out of the blue, right now when all this is happening to me, has thrown me for a loop.

‘Right next door to me. In the small town you knew I grew up in, hours away from where you lived.’

‘You accusing me of something, short stuff?’

He smirks, and, exhaling at the sound of that nickname, I shake my head.

‘Why are you here, Arlo?’ my repeated words are desperate, and he seems to soften at the sound.

‘As strange as this is, it is purely coincidental. I wanted a change of pace, somewhere I could walk my dog off-leash without worrying about traffic. I started looking for small-town properties, and I found this one.’

‘But it wasn’t even on the market.’

‘A friend of mine knows the previous owner and knew they were looking to sell. I made an offer, and they accepted.’

Holding my gaze, he smiles, just slightly, as his dog appears at his side and takes both of our attention.

‘Beans, this is Bree,’ Arlo addresses the dog, then looks up at me as he backs away. ‘Good to see you, pix. Be a doll and keep the noise down, would you?’

Then he turns and heads inside the house, leaving me standing there like an idiot.

It’s been two decades. I was about to turn eighteen the last time I saw or spoke to Arlo Harper, and apparently, he can still stun the words right out of me.

‘Bree.’ Missy’s voice has me turning toward my porch and I find her staring at me, so I turn and walk in her direction.

Oh my god, she mouths as I get close, and she reaches for my hands.

‘Breanne, tell me you’ve fucked that man. If you haven’t, you have got to fuck that man,’ she says, and I balk.

‘Miss!’ I’m shocked,for some reason, at her bluntness. I really should know better.

‘I’m serious, girl. That is a smokin' hot piece of ass right there, and he’s on your doorstep, literally. I know he would show you a damn good time.’

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