“No, you didn’t. You wanted to. Because you were too cowardly to stay and face any alternative.”
His fists clenched. She was getting under his skin.Good.
“I was only thinking of you.”
“And I don’t care!” she yelled.
His fists tightened, then slowly relaxed, letting go of his anger. Lyra was disappointed, having really looked forward to a fight. If he decided to disappear for another one hundred years, she wanted a good memory to live by.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“Time does change a man, doesn’t it? Never thought you were capable of such words.”
“I’m not the monster you think I am, Lyra. And I’m sorry. Can we just talk? Catch up on the times? Leave the past in the past.”
“I have—that’s why I can’t stand you. I’ve left the past in the past, and healed from it.”
“If you’ve truly healed from it, then you should be able to stand me. Face me. Look me in the eyes.”
“Maybe I just don’t want to.”
Levi closed the gap between them, and all the while Lyra was thinking about why Jackson or anyone else hadn’t broken up the scene already. Why she was letting him get this close to her? His hands were almost on her and as he touched her bare legs—a part of her he had always been obsessed with—she pushed him away with a force that sent him down the steps. Then she shuddered because she hadn’t meant to do that, but she couldn’t possibly offer an apology. Not to him.
He jumped right back, unscathed. “I am sorry, that’s what I came here to do. To apologize. I’m sorry. I was young and foolish—”
“And I was ready to do anything you wanted me to do, go anywhere you wanted me to go.”
He breathed in deeply, his broad chest rising and falling. His square jaw clenched. “How do I make it up to you?”
Lyra thought for a moment that there might be something he could do that would make up for what he’d done, but she couldn’t think of it. “I want you to leave. Right now, that’s the only thing I want.”
Levi stood there with a look on his face that said he wasn’t going anywhere, not until he got what he wanted. Well, this time, he just couldn’t.
He started to say something, but Lyra couldn’t hear him anymore because she saw the school bus approaching and her heart froze. Then it started beating so loudly that she couldn’t even hear her own thoughts. It was Adam’s school bus.
Levi noticed the dread in her eyes, even though he couldn’t tell what was causing it. Lyra turned sharply to stare at Levi, who seemed to be at alert, looking around if there was something he had to protect her from.
“Are you okay?”
She couldn’t say a word. Adam and Levi just couldn’t meet, they couldn’t. If Levi had left the first time she’d said it, this would not be happening.
“Hey…”
The school bus stopped in front of them. Levi turned to look back at it, and as Adam stepped down from the bus and ran toward Lyra, he immediately understood the situation. His pupils dilated and the color drained from his face. Lyra did her best to look as natural as possible. If there was any slip-up on her part, he would know. He would know.
Adam raced into her arms and she caught him, both giggling. “What’s up, little man?”
Adam, who seemed not to have even noticed Levi at first, turned to look at him. It was a curious, intimidating gaze. As Levi stared right back into it, he recognized something in his eyes, a part of him he recognized. Levi didn’t take his eyes off of Adam, taking in every single detail—including his age and grade. Seven years ago, he had left her. The child he was staring at could be no more than eight years old. He had his eyes and his gaze. He had his spirit. Alarmed, he flinched away. They both looked at each other and locked gaze. Lyra felt frozen in it. Only Adam was able to break her out.
“Sweetie, why don’t you go inside for a minute? I’ll join you soon. Hope you had a great day?”
Adam took one more look at Levi, then turned and went inside.
The tension in the air was so thick that neither of them knew how to break it. Lyra took one look into Levi’s eyes and she knew that he had figured it out. He knew. She leaned against the wall, crossing her arms and looking away. Her teeth were sunk so deep into her lower lip that she could have drawn blood.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked after an eternity had passed.
“What difference would it have made?”