But then they wanted to know about the details of my suspension.

“The letter didn’t go into specifics. Only that you were found guilty of an ethical violation,” my mother stated, her brows furrowed in confusion.

“What does that even mean?” my father asked.

I sighed, wishing I didn’t have to go into this right now when we were starting the process of mending our relationship.

“I was facilitating a support group on campus to work toward my volunteer hours. I became . . . involved . . . with a member of the group,” I admitted, figuring it was best to be up front rather than drag it out.

“Involved?” my mother questioned.

“Yes. As in we were together. He was my boyfriend.”

My parents digested that piece of information. I looked at them and waited for their attack. They looked concerned. Upset. But not appalled.

“Is this person still in the picture? What about Maxx? I thought he was your boyfriend?” my father asked, confused.

I took a deep breath. “Maxx is the guy, Dad.”

My parents recoiled a bit in shock.

“You’re still involved with him? What about the counseling program? What about your future?” my mother asked, seeming horrified.

“Maxx is my future, Mom. And as for the counseling program, I’m . . . I’m not sure that’s where I belong anyway.”

Just then, at the worst possible moment, the front door opened, and Maxx came in with a shopping bag.

He lifted his hand in a wave, recognizing the strange tension in the room. My mother gave him a tight smile, but my dad called him into the room.

Maxx gave me a questioning look.

“We were talking about my suspension,” I filled in, and Maxx tried to cover his look of panic.

“Oh,” he replied shortly.

“Please have a seat, young man,” my father said, and I found that I had missed his overprotectiveness. Because I could see as clear as day he was about to go papa bear on poor Maxx.

“Our daughter was just filling us in about your history. And we have to say, we’re very concerned. Are you aware what Aubrey is putting on the line by continuing your relationship?” Mom asked.

Maxx squared his shoulders and faced my parents. “I know that Aubrey is an amazing woman that I love with my whole heart. And while I know to most people our relationship doesn’t make any sense, to us, it does. I’m a better man because of your daughter, and I have to believe that if she is willing to take the risk by being with me, then I have to do everything I can to be worth it.”

God, I loved him.

There wasn’t much more to say after that, and my parents had reluctantly dropped the subject.

The next day, after breakfast with my parents, I had decided to give Maxx a tour of Marshall Creek. He had seemed more than ready to get out of my parents’ house for a few hours.

“I don’t think I’ve seen you smile so much . . . ever,” Maxx commented after I had shown him my high school and the church where Jayme and I had been baptized.

“I don’t think I’ve smiled this much since I was seventeen,” I admitted, turning in to the small parking lot of a tiny diner in the center of town. Maxx held the door open for me as I walked into Sunset Café, a Marshall Creek staple that had been slinging burgers and fries since the fifties.

After we grabbed a table, I looked up automatically at the chime of the bell above the door and noticed a tall, thin young man with dark hair to his shoulders walking in. He moved with a swagger that indicated total self-confidence.

He hadn’t changed.

Not in three years.

I hated him for it.

Because Blake Fields deserved to have the weight of his actions destroy his life the way they had destroyed my sister’s.

But there he was, looking healthy and alive.

God, I fucking loathed him.

“Aubrey,” Maxx was saying, but I barely heard him.

All I could do was watch the person who was responsible for the death of my sister turn to a girl who had followed him into the diner and put his arm around her, pulling her close.

He smiled down at her, and she reached up on her tiptoes to kiss his mouth. He smoothed the hair back from her forehead and smiled down at her in a way I had never seen him smile at Jayme.

“Aubrey!” Maxx said again, but I ignored him.

Before I realized what I was doing, I was on my feet and moving toward the front of the diner. Blake and his girlfriend were looking around, obviously trying to find a place to sit. Neither saw me approach. It wasn’t until I stopped in front of him that Blake bothered to look at me at all.

I saw his puzzled frown and knew he was trying to place me. I could see that I was familiar to him, but he couldn’t figure out how he knew me.

“Uh . . . hey?” he said, posing his statement more as a question. His girlfriend looked at me, then at Blake, seeming confused.

I swallowed, feeling suddenly nauseous.

I wanted to punch him in his smug face. I wanted to rip the hair from his head. I wanted to break every bone in his pathetic body and leave him to die in a dirty alley just as he had left my sister.

I thought of a million ways to kill the man who stood before me. A million horrific, painful ways to inflict on him the same torture he had unwittingly inflicted on my family by simply being the person he was.

A manipulative, cowardly drug dealer.

I still hadn’t moved. I blocked their way into the diner. I opened my mouth to scream. To yell. To hurl insults and threats into his face.

Blake cocked his head to the side, looking more and more confused.

He was alive.

My sister was dead.

And there was no changing that.

“I’m Aubrey Duncan,” I said, my voice soft and crushed. Blake frowned, uncertain, still not able to figure out who I was.

I felt Maxx come up behind me and put his hand on my arm. “Who is this?” he whispered in my ear, but I shook him off.

Blake’s girlfriend gripped his arm and looked up at him. “What’s going on, Blake?” she asked, seeming irritated.

Blake’s frown deepened. “Am I supposed to know you?”

“I’m Jayme’s sister,” I said, choking on the words as they passed my lips.

My statement hit Blake with the force of a punch to the jaw. He flinched, his face paling. He took a step backward, away from me.

I stared at him, wanting to say so much more. I wanted to tell him how I blamed his thoughtless actions for the destruction of my family. I wanted to remind him of his selfishness that had killed the person I had loved.

But seeing the look on Blake’s face, I didn’t need to.

“I’m sorry,” he let out in an agonized rush, his face crumpling.

We stood there, Blake and me, two people irrevocably connected by the girl we had both lost.

“Why did you leave her there?” I asked. Because that was what haunted me the most. The thought that this asshole had left my baby sister to die. Alone.

Blake’s girlfriend tugged on his arm, trying to get his attention, but he was focused on me. I knew we were making a scene. I could feel people looking at us, but I didn’t care. I was vaguely aware of Maxx’s warm hand on my skin, but I couldn’t look away from this pathetic man in front of me.

Blake moved forward a step, then stopped. He dropped his girlfriend’s hand, as though he didn’t remember she was still there. We were both stuck in a quagmire of heartache.

“I didn’t know!” he implored, his hands becoming fists at his sides.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I demanded, not caring that my voice was rising and I was the center of attention.

“Aubrey, this probably isn’t the place to do this,” Maxx said, curling his hand around my upper arm and trying to pull me back.

I resisted and continued to stare at Blake, who had gone white.

“We had gotten into a fight. She saw me—” Blake cast a quick look around. “I was doing some fucked-up shit that I shouldn’t have been doing. And she got upset. I tried to get her to leave with me but she refused.”