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breath as he spoke, willing his words to be untrue.
    “Frankly, I’m surprised that you didn’t open my bedroom door and figure out that I was living here long before I returned home tonight.”  
    When I didn’t answer him, he continued. “When I got back home and found you sleeping and surrounded by a pile of my old letters, it kind of surprised me. I mean it’s not like you ever bothered to write me back, is it? Nope, not once. So why would you bother to keep my letters for all these years? Seems a little strange to me, don’t you think, Aspen? Something obviously made you think about me tonight and I figured maybe this would be a good time for us to talk. So, I waited for you to wake up …and here we are.”
    I was filled with dread as I turned around and looked at him. Roan’s mouth was set in a half smile as he took in my face. It pissed me off and my eyes glared venom at him . I just wanted to slap that smile off his stubbled face!  
    “So, I guess we’re roomies, then,” he said as he tried to hide his laughter in a cough.
    Oh, no. Hell no. There was no way on earth that I was going to spend one single night in the same house as the man who’d used and abandoned me all those years before.
    “I don’t know how you managed to worm yourself back into my mother’s good graces again but you don’t fool me, Roan,” I said sharply, my eyes icy and cold, “I’m packing my stuff and leaving this fucking town tonight. My mother’s gone now and there’s nothing forcing me to stay here. I have a life, in Springbay. That is my home now. To hell with the realtor, I don’t care if I ever sell this damn house, it can sit here and rot with you in it for all I care.”
    “I see. So, we’re going to do this the hard way then, are we? Why not, Aspen? The entire thing’s been hard. Why stop now?” He said angrily as he ran his hands through his short hair.
    “Get. The. Hell. Out. Of. My. Way. Roan,” I hissed at him as he stood in the doorway and effectively blocked my furious retreat, “I don’t know how much simpler I can put it. I don’t want to be here with you. I just want you to leave me alone.”  
    Roan stood in front of me, his large frame and crossed biceps firmly obstructing the sole path to my escape.  
    Meeting up with him again, under these nerve wracking circumstances was almost as bad as the day he’d left Spruce hollow. The only difference this time was, Roan was here to witness the effects of his torture.  
    My tenuous grasp on propriety was quickly threatening to fall by the wayside as I blew out a hard puff of air and started pacing his room like a caged animal.
    “Please Roan, you need to move. I want to leave, get out of my way for the love of god!”
    His face remained cold and unreadable as he watched me. I could quickly feel my anger slipping through my fingers like fine grains of sand, leaving only panic and fear to remain. I needed to get away from him before I started bawling like a baby.
    Desperate, I rushed the door, trying to push past him but he easily stopped me. His strong hands wrapped around the tender flesh of my upper arms as he held me away from his body and looked down at me.
    “It’s going to be okay Aspen. I know you’re confused and very angry right now. You have every right to be. But I can’t let you leave. I’m sorry.” His eyes seemed sympathetic as he looked down at me but that only fueled my fire.  
    I didn’t want his pity!
    How could my mother have lied to me about this? She’d known how I’d felt about Roan. She’d held me and comforted me when I’d cried heartbroken tears after he’d left. She’d told me that she understood what it was to lose someone you cared about. For god’s sake, she would make me hot chocolate and toast with butter when I would get Roan’s letters in the mail and hide in my room, for days at a time, bawling my eyes out.  
    I yanked my arms free and, surprisingly, he let me go as I started pacing back and forth