Sam and I came to this park a couple of times in high school, but not often enough that I’m overrun with memories. For that, I’m grateful. It makes a truce that much easier.

As we enter the park, Zeus perks up a little, trotting ahead of us, and suddenly riveted by a pair of squirrels chasing each other up a tree.

“See?” I say. “Good as new.”

“I hope so,” Sam says. “He’s the family dog, but he lives with me now. He’s always been a little more mine than the others. And I know he’s getting older but I can’t imagine what it will be like after he’s gone. I’ve had him for a long time.”

“I remember,” I say softly. But this isn’t the conversation we need. We need something lighter. More normal. “Well you know what I’m doing now. What are you doing?”

Sam puts his hands in his pockets. “You mean you didn’t track my every move over the last ten years?” He’s smiling.

I smile too. “Only when I wasn’t pretending that you didn’t exist at all.”

“I own a custom garage now. I wish I had more time to work on the cars that come in. My father has had me doing some things for the family dynasty.” He says “dynasty” with a pointed bitterness. “But I’m working on separating myself a bit more.”

“You always did love cars.”

He nods. “Nothing better than figuring out what makes a complicated machine tick. Or, if you’re lucky, make it run even better.”

Zeus is trotting around now, and it seems like he’s getting some of his energy back. “I’m surprised you stayed here in Hawthorne,” I say. “You always talked about wanting to get out.”

“You stayed too.”

He’s right. I did. But I never had big dreams the way Sam did. All I ever wanted was a home and a family. Not a very trendy dream these days, but I thought I was well on my way to that—

I stop my thoughts in their tracks. I can’t go there. Not while we’re in truce mode. “Yeah, I stayed.”

“Fiona,” Sam says, scratching the back of his neck, “I feel like I still know you, but I don’t.”

“It’s all a little bit déjà vu.”

“Could we play the old game?”

It takes me a second to remember what he’s talking about. But then it hits me. Twenty questions. When we first started going out, we’d play our own version of twenty question, ten each back and forth, and they had to be the truth. It helped us get to know each other. “Okay. You go first.”

Sam crouches, patting Zeus on his side as he noses around some leaves on the ground. “What’s your favorite candy now?”

I know why he’s asking. I used to be absolutely mad about gummy bears. I couldn’t get enough of them. To the point where Sam bought me a five-pound gummy bear for my birthday. “Still gummy bears,” I say. “But I try not to eat too much sugar now, being a nurse and all.”

“Fair enough,” he says.

“Did you play any sports in college?” Sam played every sport imaginable in high school, and he was an amazing swimmer. I never knew if he went on to play something.

“Basketball. I swam for a little bit, but the people on my team were more serious about it than I was. I wasn’t interested in competing on that level,” he says. “Why didn’t you ever go somewhere like New York, the way Rose did?”

I smile. I knew he would ask. “I think the idea of home means more to me than it does to Rose. I like that I know everything in this town. I like that everything is familiar.” I pause, trying to think of a question that isn’t going to totally break our truce. “Where do you live now? You said that Zeus is with you.”

“Not far from here actually,” he says. “I wanted to be a bit farther from the center of town. I’ve got a nice piece of land that Zeus likes to explore. But this park makes him the most happy.”

We’re near the edge of Hawthorne on the west side. I think I know where he’s talking about, some larger houses and estates are just outside the town line. I’ve always thought I’d done a good job avoiding his side of town, but now I realize that not running into him was more luck than planning.

The squirrels appear again, and Zeus snaps to attention. They start running, and he sprints after them like he’s a youthful pup again. Sam and I are laughing together, and for a second I remember why I fell in love with him. He’s sweet and genuine, not to mention the fact that he’s sinfully hot. It makes the fact that he won’t tell me the truth about why I wasn’t enough all the more frustrating. Because Sam never does anything without a reason.

“Do you want to be a vet one day?”

“Maybe,” I say, “but I’m not sure. I became a nurse because it always seemed like nurses got to actually take care of people more than doctors do. It’s more personal. I think vets are the same way. The techs do the actual work of caring for the animals.”

Sam stares at me, and I see that familiar intensity there. It makes me want to hide, to look away, but I’m drawn in. The question pops out of my mouth before I can stop myself. “Why didn’t you leave? You always swore that you would go off and have grand adventures.”

He doesn’t look away, and I see him swallow. I see the struggle—he doesn’t know if he wants to admit the truth, but because of the rules of the game, he’s not allowed to lie. “I never left because you were here.”

It feels like the breath has been knocked out of me, and it has. Zeus has crashed into my legs chasing the squirrels. I’m knocked into Sam and we go down together. I land on top of him, and suddenly our closeness and his admission charges the air around us. Sam’s arms are around me and I realize he’s grabbed onto me to protect me from the fall. His hands slide up until they’re fully wrapped around me, and I’m pressed closer to him. “God, I want to kiss you,” he says.

That is such a bad idea, but his eyes are level with mine and I feel like I’m falling into them. Being this close to Sam messes with my head, and no matter what I do when he’s touching me, I feel like I’m home. Bad ideas be damned. “Do it.”

Sam pulls my lips down to his, and God—

I can’t even think.

His hand curves around the back of my neck, holding us together. I open to him, and his tongue possesses me in a way that takes what little breath I have away. I feel his hand slide down my body to my ass, and then our hips are pressed together and I can feel how hard he is. My body remembers the shattering orgasm from the other night, and suddenly I’m wet.

Sam rolls over me, and I feel the crunch of leaves under my back. I smell dirt and leaves and Sam. I’m lightheaded from the lack of oxygen but I don’t want to stop. Our tongues dance together and I’m tempted to let him take me here, in the middle of the park, in the middle of the day.

Zeus comes crashing over to us, butting his head against Sam’s side. We break apart, and Sam laughs. “You okay, boy?” he asks, but Zeus is already gone, chasing a leaf or something else that I can’t see. Sam looks back at me, and the moment is gone. That magic that was just swirling around us has vanished along with the truce. I’m not angry. Not the way I was the other night, but something about Sam makes me lose control. After everything, I can’t afford that. It just makes it all muddled, especially when I need answers that he’s not willing to give me.

He doesn’t stop me when I get up. “I have to get back and check on the animals.”

“Wait, Fiona.” Sam stops me with a hand on my arm. His voice is low and raspy after our kiss. “Please don’t just walk away. You let me kiss you. I know that you want me. I want you too—you have no idea how much.”

I don’t meet his eyes, because I know that right now I’m too weak, and if I look, I’ll stay. I can’t stay. “You know it’s not that simple.”

“It can be.”

“It’s not.”

Zeus noses against my leg, and I reach down to pet him before walking back toward the vet’s office. Sam doesn’t follow me, and even though it almost kills me, I don’t look back.