The bus rumbled over cracked asphalt, carrying Lena Hart back to the one place she swore she'd never see again. Halston.
The name alone stirred up memories she had spent years trying to bury—memories of late summer nights on the pier, of laughter carried on the lake breeze, of promises whispered under the stars. But also of heartbreak. Of betrayal. Of walking away when she thought her heart couldn't take one more crack.
Now, she was back.
The city looked the same—brick storefronts lining Main Street, the old diner glowing in neon, the lake stretching out like a sheet of glass. To anyone else, Halston was picturesque. To Lena, it was a graveyard of the life she might have had.
She tugged her jacket tighter around her shoulders as the bus hissed to a stop. With one duffel bag and a hollow sort of determination, she stepped onto the pavement. She told herself she was here for a fresh start, nothing more. After the wreckage of her last relationship, she needed space to heal, to breathe.
She hadn't expected to see him.
Not so soon. Not like this.
"Lena?"
Her heart stopped.
Standing across the street, a cup of coffee in one hand and surprise written across his face, was Ethan Cole. Her first love. The boy who had once known every secret she'd ever had.The man she had walked away from eight years ago without looking back.
Time had been kind to him. Too kind. Broader shoulders, a jawline sharpened with age, those same amber eyes that had once made her believe forever could be real. And yet, there was something else—an edge she didn't remember.
"Ethan." Her voice barely made it past her lips.
For a moment, the town seemed to hold its breath.
He crossed the street slowly, as if he didn't trust what he was seeing. "You're back," he said finally, the words more accusation than greeting.Lena swallowed hard. "Just for a while."
Ethan's gaze lingered on her, searching, unsteady. "You shouldn't have come back," he murmured, almost to himself.
And just like that, the ghosts she thought she'd left behind began to stir, whispering from the corners of her memory.