2. Alex #2
Even in summer, she would crawl across the bed until her feet found my legs and her face was tucked against my chest. Then she would complain that I gave off too much heat while burrowing closer.
I press my hands harder into the desk until the heels begin to ache.
She is not that girl anymore.
And I am not the boy who lay awake because he was afraid to move and wake her.
I brought her here for answers.
I brought her here because my father is dead, Danny carries the fire on his skin, and Belle disappeared before she could answer for any of it.
She left us to bury him.
She changed her name, built another life, and spent ten years pretending the Hartleys had never existed.
That is why she is here.
Not because vanilla drifts beneath her door before sunrise.
Not because I heard her moving around the kitchen this morning and stood in the hallway like an idiot, waiting for one more sound.
Definitely not because I know which glass she used, which cupboard she opened, or how little she ate before abandoning the cereal bowl in the sink.
I found her so she could pay what she owes.
I repeat that until the pressure in my chest turns back into something I can call anger.
The intercom flashes.
I ignore it.
It flashes again.
A knock follows, and the door opens before I answer.
Danny walks in with a tablet tucked beneath one arm. His shirt sleeves cover his wrists despite the Texas heat. He crosses to the chair opposite my desk and sits with his scarred side turned away from me.
He has done that since the hospital.
I have never asked whether he knows he still does it.
“You’re ignoring calls now?” he asks.
“I’m working. What do you want?”
“The Pinehaven survey team is off site. Utility review is still open. Land options are secure. The local vendors think the slowdown is procedural.”
“Keep the permits active.”
“I was going to.”
“Cut field activity back to maintenance.”
Danny’s thumb stops against the edge of the tablet.
“For how long?”
“Until I say otherwise.”
“The town will notice.”
“They noticed us the minute we started buying land. Why should we care?”
He looks at me.
Danny has always been good at silence.
He doesn’t fill it. He leaves it sitting there until the other person can’t stand it anymore.
I’ve watched bankers talk themselves into worse deals while he stared at them. Contractors admit to problems he hadn’t found yet. Edward reveal exactly what he was afraid of while pretending to lecture us.
Danny waits now.
I make him wait longer. It doesn’t work.
“Pinehaven has done what we needed it to do,” I say. “There’s no reason to keep pushing the town this hard,” I continue.
“Because you have her where you want her. And now that she’s here?”
“I deal with her.”
“Right.”
He is being careful with me. That is what bothers me. Danny has never been careful with me in his life.
He has called me an asshole in board meetings. He once told me to stop feeling sorry for myself while I was still bleeding. He has no problem telling me when I’m wrong.
But now Belle is in my apartment, and he is choosing every word before he says it.
“Say it,” I tell him.
“Say what?”
“Whatever you came in here to say.”
“I came to give you the Pinehaven update.”
“You emailed me that already.”
“Yes.”
I glance at my unopened inbox.
Danny notices.
“Leverage still matters,” he says. “Don’t let it go before we have what we came for.”
“I’m not letting anything go.”
“No?”
My fingers curl against the desk. “What exactly do you want from me?”
“Punishing everyone in Pinehaven because Belle chose to love them feels excessive. Even for you.”
“This has nothing to do with punishment. I don’t see the point in pouring money into a town that has nothing to do with our plans.”
“You’re looking at it from one angle.”
“And you’ve found another?”
“When we decided to target Pinehaven, I looked into its potential. It’s close enough to Dallas that when the tech crowd runs out of room, they’ll start looking at the surrounding towns. We could practically draw them a map and lead them straight there.”
I lean back in my chair. “Why the sudden concern for the citizens of Pinehaven?”
Danny has the decency to flush. Interesting. I’ve hit a nerve.
“I’m not concerned,” he says. “You’re wasting potential. That’s all.”
“Do you have a problem with the way I run things?”
“No, but I do have a question.”
“Then ask it.”
He turns the tablet over in his hands. The screen is black. “Have you asked Belle about Dad?”
There we go.
I look at the report.
I should already have an answer.
That question should have been waiting for her the second she stepped into my apartment. I should have sat her down and demanded every detail. Who did it. What she knew. Why she ran. Whether Dad would still be alive if she had warned us.
Instead, I fed her dinner and watched her push food around her plate and told her to eat.
“No,” I say.
Danny’s hand tightens around the tablet.
Only for a second.
“You haven’t asked her.”
“I just said I haven’t.”
“She’s been here for weeks.”
“I know how long she’s been here.”
“And you haven’t asked anything in all that time?”
Something hot crawls up my neck. I reach for my collar, then stop when I see him watching me. Ten fucking years of paying investigators to search for her.
Sealed records. False names. Empty addresses. Witnesses who remembered nothing until money changed hands, then remembered just enough to send us in the wrong direction.
She was the only person who could tell us what happened.
I used to picture the moment I found her.
In every version, she sat across from me while I looked her in the eye and asked why she had let my father die. I never imagined hesitating. I certainly never imagined remembering the weight of her asleep against me or wondering whether she still drinks her coffee too bitter.
Now she sleeps just a few feet away from my room, and I’ve spent my days noticing everything except what matters.
And I know things I have no need for. like how her fingers find the locket whenever nerves get the better of her. Danny’s scars pull her gaze away almost as soon as it lands. The pears remain untouched unless they’re cooked soft.
Yet I haven’t asked about Dad.
“I’ll ask when I’m ready.”
Danny looks down at the tablet in his hands. He doesn’t challenge me. I almost wish he would. His silence tells me he sees exactly what I’m trying not to.
“Go on,” I say.
He looks up. “With what?”
“Tell me I’ve lost sight of why she’s here.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You’re thinking it.”
“I’m thinking we waited ten years. A few more weeks won’t change what she knows.”
It is too calm. Danny is never calm about Dad.
“You want answers.”
“Yes.”
“Then why aren’t you pushing me?”
His mouth tightens. “I am pushing.”
“No, you’re not.”
He looks towards the windows. That’s all the confirmation I need.
“You think I can’t handle her.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Stop telling me what you didn’t say.”
His eyes come back to mine. “Fine. I think Belle has always made you stupid.”
A laugh almost leaves me. “She hasn’t been in my life for ten years.”
“And she’s been back for a few days and you are already losing sight of things.”
“Explain yourself.”
“You’re cutting activity in Pinehaven before she’s answered a single question.”
“It’s unnecessary spending.”