Page 143 of Your Place or Mine

I stopped on the sidewalk, Melanie a step behind me, and narrowed my eyes. “Trevor, what are you doing here?”

He opened his arms, as if that answered the question. “I missed you.”

Melanie scoffed. “Try harder.”

“I heard you moved out here. Figured I’d come see how you’re doing. You always liked small towns. Thought maybe you’d be glad to see a familiar face.”

“Actually,” I said, folding my arms, “I moved out here to get away from familiar faces. Especially ones that told me I was too sentimental to make it in the real world.”

He winced a little at that. “Okay, I said some things I didn’t mean. But come on, Lyd…this town? You can’t tell me this place is enough for you.”

“Ican, and Iam.”

His smile dropped a notch. “Alright, fine. But look, I was thinking… maybe I could stick around for a bit. Help you settle in. You’ve never been great at fixing things on your own.”

Melanie made a sound like she was physically holding back a string of expletives.

I stepped back half a pace, heart thudding with that old familiar unease. “I don’t need your help. I’m doing just fine on my own.”

“You don’t have to prove anything, Lydia.” He reached out to touch my arm, and that was it.

A deep, gravel-lined voice rumbled across the sidewalk, low and dangerous.

“Everything okay here?”

I turned.

And there he was.

Callum.

Towering. Broad-shouldered. Storm-eyed. Walking toward us like he’d just stepped out of a wildfire and hadn’t quite cooled off yet.

His hands were at his sides, but his posture was all coiled energy and territorial warning.

Trevor dropped his hand and took an instinctive step back.

Melanie, ever the opportunist, whispered, “Oh,thisis about to get interesting.”

“This is my ex,” I said quickly, though my pulse was racing in a way that had nothing to do with fear and everything to do with the man currently glaring holes into my ex-boyfriend. “Not sure why he’s here.”

Callum stopped a few feet away from us, eyes fixed on Trevor like he was a roach that wandered somewhere it didn’t belong.

“I could’ve sworn I saw someone beingreallypushy from across the street.” His voice was edged with steel.

Trevor straightened his spine and laughed, but it came out brittle. “Whoa, okay. You the local sheriff or something?”

Callum didn’t smile. “Nope. Just someone who doesn’t like seeing jerks bothering women who clearly want them to leave.”

I saw Trevor bristle at that, but his ego was outmatched.

Callum looked like the kind of man who didn’t bluff. The kind of man who’d broken in wild horses or wrangled bears for funsies.

Trevor cleared his throat and took another step back toward his car. “Right. Well. Lydia, if you ever change your mind—”

“I won’t,” I said, loud enough to cut him off.

He paused.

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