Page 22 of My Secret to Protect

‘You do?’ my twin asks, holding my gaze, and I nod, yes, feeling suddenly ashamed. I never told her about him.

‘We,’ I’m stuck between downplaying what we had and hyping it up to more than it was, ‘hung out for a while.’

‘Hung out? You mean y’all were fuckin’?’ Missy, tactful as ever, asks, and I shake my head.

‘No, we never… it wasn’t that. I mean—’ I chew my lip as they all fall silent, and I meet Zoe’s attention. ‘I loved him. We were together. He’s the only man I ever loved that way.’

‘You never told me you’d loved anybody that way.’ Zoe’s voice is surprised and sad, and I reach out my hand for hers.

‘It was the year you and Luke got married. I was staying with Grandma, and you two were so happy and in love. We hardly talked that summer, twinnie, and then it ended. You were a newlywed, and life moved on.’

‘Bree, you could have told me.’

I swallow hard and nod. I could have. I should have.

‘How did it end?’ Cara asks sweetly, and I quickly try to decide what to tell them. The whole truth isn’t mine to tell.

‘He broke up with me, that was that.’ I shrug and sit back in my seat, the memories of the heartbreak real and raw and as painful as ever.

‘Just like that?’ Zoe pushes, and I nod.

‘Yeah, first love, done.’ I try to smile.

‘Is he the reason you haven’t gotten serious with anybody else?’

I take a breath. Is he? I never really thought about it, but no, it’s not him. I moved on.

‘No, I just never met anybody I wanted something with. You know that.’

‘Holy shit, that’shim,’ Missy whispers excitedly, and I glance up as Arlo walks up the path with his dog. ‘Hey, Arlo,’ she says with absolutely zero chill, standing and waving as he heads toward his front door.

God damn, he looks good.

Arlo Harper was hot as fuck at twenty. At almost forty, he is indescribably hot. At twenty, he was all ripped and tanned, with sporadically tattooed skin, and his hair was always that perfectstyled-to-look-messykind of deal.ThisArlo is something else. There’s some salt seasoning up his dark blond hair and neat beard now, and that playful sparkle he always had in his eyes has been replaced by something else, something strong and serious, something he’s very much aiming my way.

The first time I saw him I was immediately defensive—this young man storming into my grandma’s yard, but once I actually looked at him, I knew I was in trouble. I was right. I should have trusted my instincts. He broke my heart just like I knew he would. Looking at him now, though, good lord, would it be weird if I rubbed up against his leg and purred?

‘Um, hey, ladies.’ He flashes a nervous smile that makes my stomach flip. I remember that smile well. It’s the one he used when it was just us, when we moved towards getting handsy and breathless, as though he couldn’t believe we were there together. I swallow hard, and I hear Cara suck in a breath next to me at the sight of him.

‘Hi, I’m…

‘You must be Zoe,’ Arlo cuts her off as my twin approaches him and reaches out her hand across the bush. ‘Bree told me a lot about you.’

‘Wish I could say the same, Arlo, but I didn’t know you existed until today.’ I hear the tension in her voice. She wants to kill him for being my first heartbreak, and she doesn’t even know all the details.

‘How are you liking our little town?’ Cara asks, sensing the impending ass-kicking and trying to diffuse it, and Arlo shrugs.

‘I haven’t had much of a chance to look around yet, to be honest.’

‘Oh, you should get Bree to show you around.’ My soon-to-be sister-in-law offershelpfully. ‘She’s the police chief, so she pretty much runs the town. There’s not an inch of it she doesn’t know.’

‘I may just do that.’ Arlo’s eyes meet mine, and I have to look away, fighting to steady my breath. This is so fucking weird.

‘You should join us at the bar next Friday. We’re getting together, and you can meet our guys,’ Missy says, smiling, and Arlo grins.Good lord,that grin.

‘All of you?’ he asks, and Missy nods before he turns his attention to me, ‘your guy too?’

I feel Cara and Zoe’s sideways glances, and Missy practically bursts as she turns to look at me, her eyes wide.

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