“Stop it!” I scream, running out into the road.

Thomas is on top of Luke after tackling him to the ground out of nowhere. “Stay the fuck away,” he yells, trying to punch Luke in the face, raining down blows.

“Stop!” I scream again, grabbing Thomas’s shoulder. He shrugs me off, but it’s enough to give Luke enough room to roll to the side and shrug Thomas off. Luke scrambles away as Thomas gets to his feet and the two men face off at each other.

Luke’s eyes are burning with a hate I’ve never seen before in my life. It actually scares me a little bit, and I think that if I don’t do something, he’s going to kill Thomas.

“Stop!” I yell again. “Enough, Thomas. You asshole, stop!”

I get between the two men. The hate in Luke’s eyes softens a little bit, but I can still feel the anger radiating off him.

“I warned that fucking scumbag,” Thomas shouts. “I told him to stay away.”

“Enough,” I say to him. “You attacked him like a psycho for no reason.” I walk up to Thomas and push him, hands on his chest. He steps back, eyes still on Luke. “Enough, Thomas, go inside.”

“Not until he leaves.”

“Thomas, go the fuck inside, or I’ll scream. You want that? Make the neighbors all come outside?”

He finally looks at me. I can see the indecision in his eyes and the violent desire to still go over Luke. Finally, he steps back toward the house again.

“This isn’t over,” he says to Luke before turning and stalking off. He goes inside, slamming the door shut behind him.

I turn back to Luke, heart hammering. “Are you okay?” I ask him.

He nods. “Fine,” he says.

His lip is bleeding a little bit. I walk up to him and go to wipe it off, but he flinches away. That breaks my heart more than anything else. He’s never flinched away from my touch before.

But I guess he’s not the same guy that left me. I could see the differences on TV, but in person, it’s starker. He’s more muscular, leaner, tougher. His nose is slightly crooked now that I’m close enough to look hard, like it was broken and improperly set. His eyes are harder than I thought they’d be, and there’s no smile on his face, like he used to have every time I saw him.

I drop my hand. “I’m sorry,” I say. “I didn’t know he’d do that.”

“I’m the sorry one.” He spits blood onto the ground. “I shouldn’t have come.”

I bite my lip and watch as he walks back to his truck. It’s the same truck he obsessed about five years ago, the truck that was his alibi. The truck that we used to spend so much time in together, where he’d fuck me deep and slow, whisper how much he wanted me in my ear, make me come like I’ve never come before or since. Memories spill out of me when I watch him walking toward that truck.

“Wait,” I say. “Hold on.”

He pauses at the driver’s side door. “Yeah?”

“Do you want to, uh, go for a walk?”

He watches me for a second and I think he’s going to leave. Instead, he shrugs. “Sure, whatever.”

“Come on.”

We start down the sidewalk together, and the weight of everything that’s happened is heavy between us. I glance at him out of the corner of my eye and I hate this, I hate how weird it is. Because even though he’s different in a lot of ways, he’s still Luke. I’ve been picturing this moment for so long, five long years, picturing how things would be if he came back home.

It’s nothing like I imagined.

“How are things?” he finally asks, breaking the icy silence.

“Okay, I guess,” I say.

“Good.” He looks away, at the houses. “Feels weird, being back here.”

“Yeah?” I smile a little. “We used to do this a lot, remember?”

“I remember,” he says softly.

We cut down a little dirt path between two houses, through a little group of trees, and come up to the creek. We walked this path a hundred times together back then. It feels so familiar, though the icy discomfort is still there. We’re moving on autopilot, and I see a little smile crack along his lips when we step up to the bank of the creek.

“Not much changes,” he says, picking up a rock. “Thought maybe this would be gone.”

“Why?” I ask him, smiling.

He shrugs, tossing the rock into the water. “Global warming or whatever.” He grins at me and I laugh at his joke.

“A lot hasn’t changed since you left.”

“Yeah, I know.” He looks back at the water. “Like you.”

My heart starts beating faster. “I’ve changed.”

“Yeah, maybe, but not really.” He looks back at me with those eyes, and it strikes me all over again how different he seems, and yet the same. I must look that exact way to him.

“You haven’t changed either,” I say.

“Yes, I have. Got a little bigger. Seen some things.” He shrugs. “That’s what happens.”

I pause, not sure how to answer. “I’m glad you’re back.”

“Your brother isn’t.”

I smile. “Yeah, well, he never liked you.”

“Dad too, I bet he’s pissed.”

“Told me not to see you,” I say. We start walking again along the path that snakes around the creek. “Threatened to kick me out.”

“I’m not surprised.”

“Thomas is gonna tell him, but whatever. I’ll deal with it.”

“I don’t want to cause you trouble,” he says. “That’s not why I’m here.”

“Why are you here?” I ask him softly.

He doesn’t answer right away. I can see him working something out in his mind. Finally, he just shrugs a little. “Not sure, honestly. I told myself I wouldn’t…” He trails off.

“Wouldn’t what?”

“See you.” He stops walking and turns toward me.

I face him, heart hammering, both afraid and excited. I want him so badly it hurts, want to kiss him and touch him, but he’s so far away. Five years is sitting between us, and everything that’s happened inside of it.

“Why didn’t you write to me?” he asks, his face hard. “Why haven’t you sent me a picture of my son?”

“I’m sorry,” I say to him. “I just couldn’t.”

“What’s his name?”

I hesitate. “Max,” I say.

He nods a little. “Good name.”

“I’m glad you like it.”

He stares at me and I can see all the hurt and pain I’ve caused him. I wish I could tell him everything, but I’m afraid of how he’ll react, what he’ll do.

“Never answered my calls. Never wrote,” he says softly. “Just disappeared. Left me there.”

“Luke,” I say, but my phone starts ringing. “Shit.” I pull it out of my pocket and my father’s name shows up on the screen.

He looks down at it. “Better answer,” he says. “Can’t ignore Daddy when he calls.”

“Luke,” I say again, but he’s already walking away.

I stand there watching him, my phone ringing insistently in my hand. I want to go after him, ignore the call, explain everything. But right now, I can’t afford to get kicked out of my house. I have to think about Max above all else, and Max needs this.

“Fuck,” I say softly to myself, and I answer the phone. Luke keeps walking, disappearing up ahead, around the bend.

“Hello?”

“Come home,” my father says. “Right now.”

“Dad, wait—“

“Come home,” he says again. “Thomas called. I’ll be there soon.”

“Dad, he just—“

“Come home right now.” He hangs up.

I stare at my phone, shake my head, and slip it into my pocket. Dad’s going to be angry, but I think he’ll forgive me. Thomas attacking Luke is going to take a lot of the pressure off.

I stare up ahead at where Luke just disappeared. I want to run after him but I know I can’t. I have to go back.

But this isn’t over. I can’t leave things hanging like this. The man I love is still in there, buried under all that anger and hate, and I have to find him again. I’m going to keep trying, because I’ve never given up, not after all these years.

I turn away and head home, more determined than ever.