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girl I never thought I’d see again. She’d walked out of my life unexpectedly, leaving me with nothing more than a break-up email. It was shitty, but I could forgive all that as long as she was happy. But she sure didn’t look happy.
    “I’ve lived here for e leven years,” she said in a clipped tone.
    “Eleven years? So you came out here right after . . .” I drifted off, not sure what to say exactly.
    “Yeah, after . . . that.”
    “It’s good to see you,” I said honestly, because it really was.
    “Screw you, Ryan,” she said, turning away from me again.
    “But–”
    But I wasn’t sure what I wanted to say. Why was she angry with me ? I should be angry with her. She was the one who left, who broke things off, who never contacted me again. Then I realized she was crying, and her shoulders were shaking, so I did what any decent guy would have done, I went to comfort her even though I knew she would push me away.
    And sure enough, as soon as my hands close d around her shoulders, she shrugged me off.
    “Leave me alone, Ryan ,” she seethed, growling my name and sounding much sexier than I should have found her in that moment.
    “Okay,” I said, backing up with my hands in the air, but I wasn’t leaving.
    Then she spun around and faced me, her eyes wet and red-rimmed , and wet streaks on her face where her tears had fallen. “Get out. Get out of my parlor now, and do not come back.”
    “Fine,” I said after a few seconds, knowing her well enough to know that she needed space.
    I walked back out to the waiting room in a daze, still trying to wrap my head around what had just happened. Harper Connelly lived in San Francisco and worked not two miles from my condo and a block from my office. It was insane that we’d never run into each other, but what was even more insane was that I still found her so incredibly attractive after all these years.
    Not that she hadn’t always been beautiful, but I figured after more than a decade, feelings would fade. But it was as if we’d never been apart. She was still the girl I’d fallen in love with when I was sixteen, and she still had an incredible power over my emotions.
    I realized my heart was pounding out a staccato rhythm, and my breathing was shallow as I walked away from her, knowi ng it was the wrong thing to do. Why was I walking away?
    I found Brandon flirting with the receptionist with the large fairy on her shoulder and the ring through her lip.
    “Hey man, you chicken out?” he asked me.
    I nodded, unable to utter any actual words.
    “Pussy. Come on, let’s go get drunk.”
    I nodded again, thinking that was a great idea.

 
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Eight
    Harper
     
    Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit.
    I’d fallen to my knees in the middle of the room as soon as Ryan had left, unable to remain on my feet. The tears were falling silently down my cheeks as I was assaulted with memories of him that I ’d buried deep, and the anger that I thought I’d let go was bubbling at the surface. My hands shook, and the floor below me seemed to be tilting and moving before my eyes.
    I never thought I’d see him again, never. He was a part of my life that I let go, I left behind, and he had no business being here in the present. He was the past.
    But he’d been there, so close. He’d touched me, and his scent had assaulted me and thrown me over the edge. It had made him real.
    For two years he’d been everything to me. While everyone else treated me like I had the plague, Ryan Carson had held me and defended me an d loved me. He didn’t care that his family hated me, that my stepfather was in prison for stealing millions of dollars or that my mother was having an affair with a married man. He’d loved me when I felt completely alone in the world, he’d helped me find my father, and he’d made me see how amazing life could be with someone incredibly special.
    Memories o f us riding around in his Corvette with the top down and singing at the top of