I hear his voice, but it can’t be real. As much as I’ve tried to erase Axel from my mind, I haven’t been able to. How could I when I have a little reminder of him underfoot every day?

When I look in the direction of his voice, I see her running to him.

He picks her up and twirls her around. The pair of them are smiling like they’ve just found their best friend after a long absence.

Wordlessly, I stare at them.

He runs to me, our daughter still in his arms.

My legs go weak, and I’m glued to the spot.

It all happens in slow motion as he throws his arms open, and smacks into me as he hugs me. The momentum is too much, and we all go crashing to the grass. Lark giggles like this is the funniest thing ever, but Axel brushes my hair away from my forehead.

“I’m sorry. Did I hurt you?” he asks, concern evident in his eyes.

“No,” I say, shaking my head, wrapping my arms around him. Can this be real? I laugh at the craziness of it and wonder if I’m losing my mind.

“Good.” He nuzzles his nose against my skin, moving his face to the nape of my neck and settling in there.

It takes him a few minutes to get off me. When he finally does, he rolls over so he’s lying next to me in the grass. Then he grabs me by the waist and pulls so I’m almost lying on top of him.

“Well,” he says, his voice more confident and sure of himself. The Axel I’m used to. The Axel I love, even though his voice is trembling—he’s weak with emotion and so am I. “Looks like I’m definitely buying my old house now.”

“What?” I cling to one of his arms, wanting this all to be real so badly.

“Now that I know you’re here, it seems like the right thing to do.”

“Uncertainty isn’t like the Axel I know,” I tease him, but look away. If he is real, I can’t let him see how hurt I am.

But then I stop myself. I’ve run away from this man way too often. I owe him the truth. If he needs me anywhere near the way I need him, he needs to know.

“And running away isn’t like the Olive I know.” He strokes my cheek, and props up on an elbow so he can look at me.

I suck my bottom lip into my mouth and force myself to look up at him again.

“Okay,” he teases, “maybe it is exactly like you.”

“If Mommy runs away, you should try to catch her,” Lark pipes up.

Axel and I laugh. In case we needed a reminder that little ones have big ears.

Axel tweaks Lark’s nose playfully. “I think you’re right. That’s my intention, sweetheart.”

“Axel,” I whisper, “we need to talk.”

I jerk my head toward Lark to indicate that I mean when she’s not around. He nods in agreement.

“And I need to get into that house.” He stands up, and offers a hand to both me and Lark. When he lifts me up, he holds me close for a minute before letting me go. He gazes wistfully at his old house. Only twenty feet away from mine, just like it has been since we were little kids.

“I’ll join you in a minute. Let me just take Lark’s over to the neighbor’s.”

“Do I have to go?” Lark pouts. “Axel just got here.”

“We’ll do something special tomorrow, I promise,” he tells her, and that makes her happy for now.

I take Lark’s hand, and we walk down the street to Mrs. Prentice’s house. She’s always glad to watch Lark. I’m not sure who Lark is more thrilled to see—Mrs. Prentice or her cat Beatrix.

“I just need to—” I start to tell Mrs. Prentice.

“You do whatever you need to do. Lark can stay with me as long as she likes. It does this old woman good to have a young’un around.”

“Thank you so much.” I practically sprint down the street back to Axel’s old house. Mrs. Prentice’s grandchildren live on the other side of the country, and I know she misses them. Any chance she gets to spoil Lark she takes.

I find Axel picking the lock to his front door.

“Your porch needs some work,” I observe. “And you need a key.”

“Hey,” he defends himself, not looking up from the knob. “I’ve got access to the garage, but now that I’m thinking of buying the place, I want in the rest of it, and the door to the inside from the garage is locked. I used to have a key …”

“You’re back in the habit of losing things?” I ask, moving as close to him as I can without interrupting his break-in.

The lock clicks open, and he raises his arms triumphantly then pushes the door open and turns on the light switch next to the door.

Everything looks the same as it did a few years ago, except for the rug at the entrance. That’s new. Axel mock bows to me, indicating that I should go first. I do, wiping my feet on the rug as I go.

“I don’t lose what’s mine,” He says with such confidence that I realize he’s not talking about the house. He closes the door behind him.

We’re left with the scent of each other and this old house. He’s not wearing cologne. But there’s something about him that smells undeniably …

Axel.

He smells manly, like the ocean—of water and salt air. Maybe something else. I can’t place it, but I want to press my nose against his skin, to smell him, to taste him.

I came here to talk. Instead of looking up at him and saying anything that could possibly embarrass me even further—God, if he only knew how depressed I was without him.

Strolling through the living room, looking for the couch I was so familiar with when I was a child, I trip.

Axel catches me before I fall though, and for a second, we gaze into each other’s eyes.

Before I can turn away, he presses his lips softly against mine.

The kiss is gentle. The desperate need between us is so strong it threatens to steal my breath, so when he pulls back I gasp for air.

While I struggle to calm my rapidly beating heart, he touches my hair with his hand. It’s innocent, but I moan. And I can tell from the electricity passing through us that he’s filled with lust too.

“Do you remember how we’d sit on this couch and watch movies together when you couldn’t sleep?” he asks.

I nod. “Yeah.” My hand is on his chest, touching him again, needing to explore his skin. “And then we’d go to school in the morning without any sleep, exhausted.”

“But not in high school,” he reminds me. Then he drops onto the couch and pats his lap for me to sit down on it.

“Let’s not talk about when things got complicated.” I rolled my eyes at him.

“Like it’s not complicated when you run away from me.” Placing both hands on my waist he pulls me onto his lap and holds me close.

I scoot closer to him, wiggling my butt against his dick to make him smile, to make him hard. I gulp, needing to explain myself but so distracted by the way he feels below me. “I saw you, that day.”

He tickles the back of my neck. “At the fight?”

I nod.

“I saw you, too. Olive, I was never going to do anything with those girls. Never. I’ve been looking for you for ages.”

“I ran away from you, again. I’m sorry.”

“You’re here with me now.” He presses a small kiss against my skin, and I can feel myself getting aroused. It’s not helping that his erection is rubbing right against my sex.

“Olive,” he says, running a finger over my eyelids as I close them in delight. “It’s not like that. Please, believe me, it isn’t. I only want you. I want to be the best I can be for you. I want to be here, with you forever, to take care of you and Lark. I love you, and now that I’ve found you— you’re not getting rid of me.”

And even though he’s hurt me so much, I know it was all a mistake. I shouldn’t have run away from. I turn so I can straddle him and wrap my arms around his neck.

“I love you, too, and I’m glad you’re here.” I kiss him on the lips, my hands going to his chest as I tug at his shirt playfully. “But if you’re buying this house … Hmm.”

I kiss him again, bumping noses. “Which house should we live in?”

“That depends on which bedroom you like better,” he says, his hand dipping down the curve of my back to my ass. He squeezes gently, and I grind against his manhood. I forgive him completely for everything we’ve been through, and I want to show him that in the way words never will be able to.

“Olive, do you want to be with me?”

“Yes, more than anything.”

I’ve been waiting for him for so long. Every thought I try to banish from my mind is just replaced by two more.

I could never forget Axel. Never move on from him. And the fact that his house was being sold. He’s back for a reason. I knew about the house being for sale, but I just didn’t know the details.

He kisses me on the neck. “I promise I’ll explain more later. For now we need to focus on something else.”

One of his hands slides up my stomach over my shirt, and he squeezes my breast. Then he tosses me onto the couch beside him.

“Olive,” he groans, his voice low. “Do you remember where my old bedroom is?”

I’m already standing.

Of course I do. We’ve never … not in there. We’ve played games there, had sleepovers as young children, and I went in there once as a young teen, with the door open as we did homework, even though our parents knew there was nothing to worry about.

I look at Axel. There definitely should’ve been something to worry about. We’re both thinking the same thing.

And we race each other up the stairs.