His Smokescreen Is Now the Woman He Can’t Have Chapter 32

His Smokescreen Is Now the Woman He Can’t Have Chapter 32

Remember me?

The words made the air in the lecture hall feel tense. My back straightened by instinct, a reaction drilled into me by countless interrogations at West Point.

My mind raced.

Who was he? Someone from the welcome event? A club member? Someone else?

“Do we know each other?” I asked. My voice was flat, but my guard was up.

Liam’s smile faltered, then turned a little helpless. He seemed to read the caution in my eyes.

“Maybe ‘remember’ isn’t the right word,” he said, his tone gentle. “We were pretty young. It was only when I saw your name that I connected the little girl with two braids who wasn’t afraid to catch caterpillars with her bare hands to the person sitting here now.”

He paused, then spoke the name that changed everything.

“Fort Adler. Do you remember?”

Fort Adler.

The name was like an old key, sliding into the deepest lock in my memory.

In an instant, the gray buildings of West Point, the cold Hudson Valley wind, and the suffocating pressure of the Honor Committee all receded like the tide.

In their place was the blinding Kansas sun, the tiny rainbow from a lawn sprinkler, and my mother on the porch, calling me and the boy next door in for lemonade.