“Yeah right. He cared so much that he just disappeared,” I said, wiping the tear that escaped. Bitterness lacing my voice. “Cared for me enough to break every promise he made.”
“He was young, Ember,” Marge said gently. “And the Army changes a person. It can break them in ways we can’t even imagine.”
“It doesn’t excuse what he did,” I retorted, the anger rising in my chest. “He just stopped writing. He could have called. He could have done anything to let me know he was still alive.” After that first time he left, he only came back to visit a couple times, but I was away at college a lot of the times he was able to get leave time. In the beginning we talked on the phone, even if it was only for a couple minutes, but soon those calls became less frequent and shorter, and then the letters stopped completely.
Marge sighed. “I know, honey. I know it hurts. But I’m sure he had his reasons.”
“Reasons that are good enough to justify more than four years of silence?” I challenged, my voice rising slightly.
Marge being Marge didn’t back down. “I don’t know, Ember. But I do know that Colton James isn’t a heartless man. Whatever happened to him, it must have been significant.” She paused, her gaze searching mine. “Are you going to let the past dictate your future, Ember? Are you going to let the anger and hurt keep you from finding happiness?”
I didn’t answer her because I didn’t know. The thought of moving on and being with anyone else made me want to cry. It was something I couldn’t imagine. But at the same time I didn’t want to stay single and alone for the rest of my life. I wanted to marry and have kids.
We talked for a while, until eventually, the coffee shop started to fill up, and Marge had to tend to other customers. I finished my coffee, feeling a little calmer.
I stood up, slung my purse over my shoulder, and headed towards the door. I took a deep breath, steeling myself for whatever the future might bring.
But nothing, absolutely nothing, could have prepared me for what happened next.
As I stepped out of the coffee shop, I walked right into a wall. A solid, unyielding wall of muscle. My head snapped back, and I stumbled, my purse slipping from my shoulder.
I looked up, and saw him.
A wall of muscle with dark hair, a shadow of days-old stubble dusting his jaw and neck. The boy I’d known was gone, replaced by a man forged from something harder, something I couldn’t quite grasp. His shoulders were broader, his jawline sharper, there was a maturity there that wasn’t there before. Yet, despite the stark transformation, those eyes the color of rich chocolate still held the same intensity. Eyes that used to hold so much warmth, now hard andunreadable, but undeniably fixed onme.
Colton.
My breath caught in my throat. I felt my composure crumbling, leaving me speechless. As the wave of shock took over me, I felt the familiar anger and resentment surfacing. He was here. He was real. And he was standing right in front of me, looking at me with the same amount of shock and surprise that mirrored my own. But that intense gaze, unwavering and unsettling, sent a shiver down my spine.
Before I could find my voice. Before I could even begin to process the fact that this man was standing in front of me, my anger began to simmer, rising from the depths of my hurt and betrayal.
Chapter 4
Colton
Ember.
It feels like my world just tilted on its axis. She was the last person I wanted to run into right now. All I wanted to do before going to my parents’ house was stop in at the familiar coffee shop and get a cup of the coffee I’ve missed over the years. I’d even told myself I needed that time to emotionally prepare myself for seeing her again. After all, I knew, deep down, I’d run into her sooner or later. I just hadn’t expected it to bethissoon.
Staring into Ember’s eyes it doesn’t escape me the fire burning in them. One thing about my Firefly is she definitely lives up to her name.
And yeah, my little Firefly was angry alright.
It was like a punch to the gut. All the years of avoiding her and shutting her out of my life and now she was here, in front of me, andshe was… breathtaking.
Ember had always been very pretty, with her blond hair and blue-gray eyes, there was no denying she was beautiful. But the girl I remembered had blossomed into a woman, a very beautiful woman who developed curves in all the right places.
My gaze flicked over her, taking in how her jeans hugged her hips. A sudden wave of heat rushed through me, and my mouth went dry. Good god her breasts… her breasts were noticeably fuller than I remembered. I was hit with a rush of memories flooding back from our summer days at Rose Valley Lake, the way she’d looked in her swimsuit, her skin glistening in the sun. I was suddenly, acutely aware of how much she had changed, how much I had missed.
I was speechless. Utterly, completely speechless. Ember, my Firefly, was standing before me for the first time in years, and I couldn’t find a single coherent thought in my head.
As the silence stretched between us, any conversations around us faded away. All the pain and hurt over the last decade, the unanswered questions, it was all like a weight pressing down on us.
After what felt like hours, but was probably only seconds, I managed to find my voice. “Ember,” I whispered, it came out rough and hoarse.
Her eyes, those stormy blue-gray eyes that had haunted my dreams for years, narrowed. There was no warmth in them, only a cold, hard anger that made me flinch.
“Colton,” she said, her voice flat, void of any emotion, like she was speaking to a stranger.
