“I’m all ears.”

Hazel with the green eyes.

Fucking Hazel with the green eyes.

She was cutting off pieces of my heart and stealing them. Finding pieces I didn’t know still existed.

She ran her finger over my knuckle. “So, I grew up seeing it. My mother…it was a constant thing in our house.”

“Damn.”

“I used to hide. She taught me how to hide. If I didn’t, he’d come for me. She let him hurt her so he wouldn’t get to me. Sometimes he did, though. I hated those nights, Maddox. I hated them the most.”

I felt her shiver.

My heart ached a little.

I squeezed her tight, letting her know she was safe in my arms. Nobody would ever fucking hurt her. Not when she was in my arms.

“She made me go into her room and look at picture books. I never knew where she got them from. I think she might’ve wanted to be a photographer, you know? At least, I tell myself that. That she had real dreams, even if they didn’t come true.

That probably sounds weird but it sort of made me happy when it came to her. I really hated her. And him. More him because he brought that to our house. Her because she took it. I knew she took it because she was protecting me, but what if…” Hazel looked up at me again. “What if she didn’t know how to stop it?”

I nodded. “Right. You were happy that you thought she had a dream. So maybe you can be happy thinking she could have stopped it.”

“It ruined my entire childhood, Maddox. I mean, that goes without saying, but I said it anyway. I had this stuffed animal rabbit with a missing eye called Wink. I would hold him, hide, do anything to get away from it. But when she showed me the picture books, that was it. I would sit there for hours and get lost. You know, you said something about us only growing up a half hour away or whatever, but this is why I was never out there. I learned to study those pictures and find stories in them. One picture, Maddox, could tell so many stories. So many stories.”

“Yeah? Try me, sugar. The first picture you took of me. Tell me a story about it.”

“Maddox…”

“No, don’t argue. Tell me a story.”

“I’m not a writer or anything.”

“I’m not asking you to write, Hazel.”

She was silent for a few seconds. Probably gathering her thoughts, considering whether to talk to me or tell me to fuck off. Either way, I just wanted to get her true emotions. I craved them. I never craved that kind of stuff before. Hazel had officially grabbed tight to me and pulled me into deep waters. Lucky for her, I could swim. And for her, I would swim every ocean on Earth.

“I saw you,” she said. “I wanted to get a really raw shot of something. The front of the building is made to look nice. Attract customers. Neon lights like an eighties music video. But the back of the building always would tell me the truth. And it did. I turned the corner and I saw you…” I cleared my throat. “He was standing there, six-six, looking ten feet tall. The cigarette positioned between his thumb and middle finger. A second later, it flew through the air. Hitting the ground, scattering red orange embers that died a quick death. As he turns his head, smoke pours from his mouth, his eyes lock onto the world surrounding him. The break is over. The day wears on him, pressing against his wide, thick shoulders, a constant threat that he fights off. Strong enough physically, strong enough mentally, but the spirit and soul are forever chipped away. His mind is heavy with thought. The stroke of a tattoo needle, the artist’s brush, there’s no taking back the ink that gets left behind. And what is left behind is the image, memory, the story, the piece of forever, a sliver of time, something he can take off his shoulders, for just a little relief.”

She was silent again.

I could picture it all. Everything she said. Down to the details of my head and my soul.

“Fucking pictures,” I whispered. “Huh?”

“Fucking pictures,” Hazel said.

“That’s why I don’t like pictures, sugar. For what you just said.”

“What do you mean?”

“Because they show everything. And some things are best not to be shown.”

Silence again.

Then slowly, Hazel turned her head. She looked up at me. I swore the fucking moonlight licked her green eyes, making them shine as bright as the midday sun. And I felt like I was having a heart attack. My damn throat closed for a moment, breathless, staring at this beautiful woman.

I saw something in her eyes. And I had a feeling of what she wanted to say.

So I nodded. “Say it, sugar.”

“Maddox, I think I’m falling in love with you.”

* * *

My hand ran down her cheek.

The words were out there, floating in the night like fireflies. They couldn’t be taken back. They couldn’t be unheard.

They couldn’t be any more true.

I put my lips to hers in a soft and sweet kiss.

“I’m a big guy, sugar, and so I don’t fall that easily,” I whispered. “But right now? My knees are cut up pretty bad. Understand?”

Hazel with the green eyes smiled.

I felt her body shiver again as she rested in my arms.

We shared another kiss. This one with a little more playful intention. But Hazel reached up and touched my cheek. Her fingers against the scruff on my face, then one finger running along my jawline.

“I’m not weak, Maddox.”

“Of course, you’re not, sugar,” I said. “I would never…”

“But I let myself act weak. There’s a difference.”

“Either way, you’re not weak. The woman who boldly got in my face with a camera is strong. The woman who had her camera broken? She’s just as strong.”

“How so?”

“Because you’re strong enough to let a camera get broken and not you. I’ll buy every camera in the world, Hazel, but I can’t replace you at a store.”

“That’s romantic, Maddox,” she said. “But I have to face facts here. I never meant for it to start happening to me. The second I had a sense of freedom I went for it. But even before that, there were times when boys would hit me and I thought it was okay. Stupid grade school stuff, but still… I remember a bully named Tommy. He threw chocolate milk in my face and took my lunch. A lunch that my mother bought for me. She never had money. It was one of those prepackaged things. Like four bucks to buy, but to me, it was like a four-hundred-dollar meal. Another boy named Danny would hit me with his shoulder in the hallway to get me to drop my books. But I had no way to deal with it. Because it was my world at home. How could I come home from school with a bruise on my shoulder and talk to my mother when she had a bruise on her face?”

“Christ, Hazel,” I said. “This is starting to get me really upset. We were so close to each other but worlds apart.”

“When I finally got a boyfriend, he turned into a jerk. Pushed me a few times. Then he slapped me and called me a cunt. That was the end of that one. I told myself then I would find a good guy. And that happened, at least at first. He wasn’t from my part of town. Wasn’t from my school. He was tall, handsome, sort of had an edge to him, but nice to me. I thought I was in heaven for about ten minutes. But the thing was, he was so manipulative. Scary how manipulative he was. Not to mention once I turned eighteen it was like a switch flipped and I felt like I had no help at all. Which is crazy. I know it’s crazy. And thing was… he would only come around when he wanted. So, when he did I wanted to be with him. I justified the outbursts. No matter how bad they got.”

“Is this Mitch?” I asked.

“No, Maddox. It’s not. Mitch is just me attracting the wrong guys, like I always do.”

“I’m not the wrong guy, sugar. I will never raise my hand to you. I will only touch you with intentions of loving you and pleasuring you. And when I get angry, Hazel, I will never direct that anger at you.”

“I know,” she whispered. “That’s why I’m so scared right now.”

“Scared of what?”

“I never really broke up with that first guy, Maddox. The one who really started to hurt me. There was no actual ending to the relationship.”

“Okay, what does that mean?”

I saw the hesitation on her face. The terror. Sheer terror. Her face white, like she was going to throw up.

“Hey,” I whispered. “It’s okay. We don’t have to talk about anything you don’t want to.”

“I have to,” she said, her voice crackling. “If I’m going to do this with you, Maddox, I think it has to be all or nothing. No matter how secret it is.”

“Jesus, Hazel, you’re making me nervous here,” I said.

“You should be,” she said.

That was the exact moment I heard my cell phone ring. Normally, I would fucking ignore it. Nothing was more important than Hazel. With one minor exception.

I had a specific ringtone for my great aunt Ada. It was some smooth jazz song that she loved. She’d sit in her chair and bounce her hands and feet, preaching to me how new music today was so terrible.

I changed the ringtone because I needed to know if and when she was calling.

And considering how late it was…

“Sugar, I have to get that,” I whispered. “It’s my great aunt.”

“Of course,” Hazel said.

I reached through the open window in the back of the truck. I got to the phone and answered it before the voicemail could pick up.

I hoped in the pit of my stomach it was something foolish that she needed. Maybe her cable went out. Maybe she ran out of bread.

But it wasn’t that at all.

In fact, it wasn’t even my great aunt Ada on the phone.