Never Letting Go

Chapter 3

It is him.

I'm staring.

I'm staring at him like he's a ghost. Like I'm seeing things and that this is all a joke; it's a dream. He's not really here and this whole thing never happened. Allison's car is fine and none of this happened. It's all just a dream and a damn good one at that.

Granted, I've not seen him in almost nine years but nothing's changed and I can see that as he takes his sunglasses off and hands them to Carlo. His pale blue eyes – eyes I can never forget and that I had spent a long time looking into when I was younger – go paler as he squints under the sun to look at me.

He was a scrawny twenty-year-old the last time I saw him and now he's this well-built, muscular businessman in a well-fitted suit and a perfect smile that could blind you like the sun.

The years have clearly been good to Luca Madden.

"Shut the fuck up!" Allison exclaims, stepping towards Luca and grabbing him by the chin.

"Miss, let go and step away from Mr. Madden." Carlo instructs. He places a hand on Allison's arm of the hand she's holding Luca's face with.

"Carlo, it's fine." Luca reassures as Allison inspects him closely.

"I don't believe it," she breathes. "Fucking hell." She lets him go and steps back until she's standing next to me. "I just . . . Kaylee . . ."

I say nothing. Even if I had something to say, I don't think my words would be able to form a complete relatable sentence. What can you say to someone who broke your heart when he left to live in another country?

Nothing.

There was a time for words to be exchanged and now isn't that time. It's too late. Life goes on and mine has done so without him in it. It may have taken a while but I'm happy it did because it has shaped my life into a better one since we broke up.

Luca takes a deep breath. "Hi, Kaylee." He smiles lightly. "How are you?"

"How is she? How do you damn well think she is?" Allison snaps before I have a chance to speak.

I still can't find any words to say to him.

I don't know what to do.

"I know it's a shock to see me after all this time . . ."

"A shock is a bit of an understatement, Luca. You left-"

"To go to a university in America," Luca says, almost like it's a reminder to both Allison and I why he left. It's only part of the reason why and I found out the other part of the reason from a news article online. Something I didn't quite tell Allison about because she'd go nuts at him if she knew. "It was step forward for my career."

"Which is doing what? Hiring big scary guys to chance their luck and run into people's cars? Come off it!"

"He's one of my many bodyguards," Luca defends weakly.

"But for what? To-"

"God, Allison! I don't have to explain myself to you. All you need to know is that I've made something of my life and the rewards I get from it are great benefits."

"What are you doing here, Luca?" I finally voice.

Just seeing how Allison is reacting to Luca has given me the ounce of strength inside to speak to my ex-boyfriend. How she's reacting to him is exactly how I should be reacting. He shouldn't get the benefit of seeing me the way he left me like.

I'm not the same girl I was when he left. I'm a woman now and I don't need a man in my life to help take care of me. I can fend for myself – despite what this moment in time might look like with Allison defending me like a mother would do for her kids.