Jaxson stretched out his left leg and tried to suppress a groan. I shot him a concerned look, which he ignored.

"So, how are you involved with Amy? You mentioned being her teacher," he said instead.

"I am." I decided not to volunteer any information. What if Jaxson was actually working for his brother and all this was some elaborate ploy to scare the life out of me and make me run away from this town – or worse?

I'm not sure how, but Jaxson seemed to pick up on my doubts regarding his integrity.

"Okay, I'll go first. Well, you obviously know about my fantastic familial background, judging by the warm and fuzzy welcome you've given me. But I have nothing to do with any of that. After I..." He swallowed. "After I got back from Germany, things got... a little intense at home, you might say. Good old Daddy Clay decided that now that I was 18, I needed to pull my weight in the business. I knew from previous experience that refusing to comply was no option because I am not a great fan of shattered bones." My heart shattered, thinking about what his childhood must have been like. My father would have rather jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge than hurt me or my sister. Jaxson carried on, "But I wasn't going to follow in his footsteps, either. I didn't know what else to do, so I up and left and decided to become a cliché. The boy with mob ties and no school education to brag about who joined the Army. Again, this might sound trite, but the Army gave me a new family, a new set of values and a new interest in learning new things. I haven't had any contact with my family since, I swear."

"You joined the Army! So that's why I couldn't find you when I came looking for you. I thought you were dead."

"Oh, now I get the resurrection reference you made earlier. Should have known. After all, I have heard the rumours about dear old Dad offing me." Jaxson paused. "You came looking for me?" he added, sounding almost hopeful.

"Of course, I did. You meant something to me, Jaxson. I thought... I wanted to... never mind what I thought or wanted. But nearly everyone I spoke to believed that you had been sent to run some sort of subsidiary of Peinelt's weapons and drugs export and import business in another part of the country. Only the people who claimed to have known you better were convinced that you were dead. I thought you were dead, too." I felt my eyes water.

"I'm so sorry, Tess. I didn't expect you to come for me and hear those rumours. I only ever told one person that I was alive and where I was."

"Why are you back now then?" I injected some doubt into my question, hoping Jaxson's answer would dispel my lingering doubts.

"Like I said, I stayed in contact with an old friend. He always updated me about the family. I felt terrible, after I had left, for leaving Carla behind. Simon had already been sucked into my father's world, but Carla..." Jaxson looked down at his hands. "I wanted to get her away from the clutches of organised crime, but... I couldn't exactly take her with me to Afghanistan or any other of the conflict areas I've been sent to over the years." Now he almost sounded belligerent, and I wondered how much misplaced guilt he was carrying around with him because his 18-year-old self had not found a way to save his little sister.

"Anyway, even when it was too late to reach out to Carla because she had fully embraced Clay's way of life, my friend kept me informed about what was going on with my father and my siblings, including Simon's growing volatility and aggression and the birth of his daughter. I'm ashamed to say that I tried to tell myself that Daddy Dear would protect Amy from her crazy father. After all, he only ever dished out his drastic physical punishments to Simon and me, never to Carla. As crooks go, he had a code of honour. It's what I believed anyway, but that particular house of cards caved in when my friend told me that Amy was in the hospital with a concussion and a broken leg, supposedly from falling down the stairs."

"That must have been before I even became her teacher. Poor girl!" I shook my head. "But why come back now and not then?"

"I came as soon as I could, Tess."

"It took all that time? And there was no way you could have...? Ah!" An epiphany hit me straight between my eyebrows. "You were Special Forces! It all makes sense now."

"You read too many romance novels, Tess. Going by them, the Army would solely consist of Special Forces guys." He laughed, but it sounded strangely forced. "Sorry to disappoint, but I liked the regular Army just fine. I still couldn't get here any earlier, though."

I found Jaxson's explanation confusing, but I didn't know what to do about it, so I decided to ignore it and change tactics.

"So, what's the plan then?" I asked, making sure Jaxson would be able to hear the sarcastic undertone.

Jaxson was obviously not telling me everything. Not that I was given him open-book access to my life story, either, I had to admit.

"Look, Tess, taking the official route won't get you anywhere other than dead. I mean it. Simon is not like my father. He's a much scarier monster. Even as a child he had no compassion and loved being cruel, to us, to his classmates, to animals. From what I've been hearing, that hasn't changed; he just had enough time to refine his techniques, and he's about to gain a lot of power, too. I will get Amy away from him, I promise, but I won't involve you. I still think it'd be best if you left Blue Church."

"Best?" I nearly choked on my own anger. "I've built a life here, Jaxson. I have a job that I love, and I have friends. I also have a responsibility towards Amy. I've been here for years. I can't just leave."

It seemed to me that the higher my voice rose, the paler Jaxson's skin became. Now that I had a better look at his face, I noticed that his cheek's looked hollow.

"You show up here after twenty years of radio silence, and now this. This is not the way I pictured our reunion." I nearly choked on the last sentence but couldn't call the words back. When it came to Jaxson, I had no filter. At least, he seemed to have missed my idiotic reference to our daughter earlier.

Jaxson was rubbing his neck now, in an apparent attempt to alleviate what must have been a killer headache, judging by his pasty complexion. His voice was strong and teasing, though, when he said, "You daydreamed about me?"

I winced, but I wasn't going to lie.

"Occasionally."

In lieu of an answer, Jaxson pressed a few buttons on his phone. The opening notes of Mandy suddenly surrounded us. He held out the screen to me.

But I sent you away – Playlist Tess/Germany

I could not believe what I was reading.

"This is your playlist?"

Jaxson nodded.

"You meant something to me, too, Tess. I have never forgotten you. My life was wrong back then, not you. I had a few girlfriends after I met you, but never anything serious. Of course, Army life is not great for relationships anyway. That's true. But the real reason why I never looked for a long-term relationship was that in the back of my mind I was really just looking for you. What about you? You said you're a single mother."

His words warmed my heat, but before I could do something totally idiotic like throwing myself at him and declaring my undying love, he made me flinch. He had not missed my remark about our daughter at all.

"There should be some Ibuprofen in the bathroom. I'll get it for you."

"Nice deflection, Tess. I don't need any painkillers. How many kids do you have?"

"One daughter," I answered and hastily added, "I'm honestly a little worried, Jax. You don't look so good."

"That's just given my ego a right boost, Tess!" Jaxson laughed. It wasn't a very loud laugh, but it was the first one to make the skin around his eyes crinkle. His whole aura changed, and I saw the 18-year-old boy I had fallen in love with so long ago in the depth of his eyes.

"Yesterday's a dream, I face the morning

Crying on a breeze

The pain is calling, oh Mandy"

The music still emanating from Jaxson's phone took me straight back to the music festival in Germany. I swallowed and leant forward towards the man that the boy I had known such a long time ago had become.

Jaxson also angled his body towards me. Our hands touched, and I felt a bolt of electricity run from the top of my head to the soles of my feet. The world froze. Until Jaxson's arm twitched and he dropped his mobile. The phone hit the stone floor of the cabin and the music stopped.

I turned away to hide my embarrassingly red cheeks and headed towards the bathroom. When my face had adopted a normal colour again, I returned to Jaxson and handed him two pills and a glass of water.

"What's that, Tess?"

"Two Ibuprofen. Take them!"

"You sound like my drill sergeant in training, babe," Jaxson laughed. "Thanks for looking after me, but I don't need any painkillers. I'm okay."

I placed the items directly in front of him. I wasn't his mother or his keeper. It was his choice. I told myself not to care.

"Right, it's late," Jaxson carried on. "Maybe we should get some rest. You must be exhausted. What are we going to do about your daughter?"

"Oh, she's in Newbridge," I answered, keeping my voice flat and my answer vague.

"At your parents? That's a stroke of luck. We don't need to worry about a sitter then for now. I suggest you get some rest. Tomorrow when you wake up, I'll be most likely already gone. I've got some things to see to first thing. But I'm going to phone an old Army buddy who does not live too far away. He'll come, make sure that you're safe. His name is Ben."

I did not know whether to kiss or kill the infuriating man leaning back in the armchair across from me.

'He remembers where you come from!' my heart sang in tune to the music.

'He's palming you off to someone else!' my brain screamed at my heart.

"So that's it? Again? You tell me I meant something to you, but you pass me onto some stranger after spending just a few hours in my presence? You can do what you like, but I'm not hanging out with some Army-trained Hulk Hogan lookalike in a cabin in the woods. Stay here the night if you want. I'm off home now."

I jumped up off my seat and lunged for the front door. Jaxson threw himself after me.

"Why are you so stupid, woman?" he shouted in frustration. "Simon or one of his buddies is probably waiting for you right there already. Stop playing the stupid bleach blonde in a horror film who runs into the derelict house where the screams come from instead of going for help."

He grabbed my arm. I pulled with all my might but couldn't break free, so I raised my knee in a rather clumsy attempt at shrinking his manhood, but Jaxson blocked the move effortlessly. I swung my free arm, but Jaxson caught it mid-air and held onto it. So I kicked his left leg. Really hard. Jaxson sucked in a breath and doubled over, but didn't let me go. My fury abated, and I looked at the man I professed to have had feelings for for more than twenty years in horror and shame.

"Jesus, Jaxson, I didn't mean that. Can you walk? Let me get you back to the chair."

I truly could not believe what I had done. What was wrong with me? I had seen Jaxson limping. What sort of monster kicks a wounded man?

"Just... give... me... a minute!" Jaxson was panting now. He let go of one of my hands to steady himself against the wall. I grabbed his waist with my free arm and pulled him towards me. He straightened.

"Here, lean on me. I'm the perfect size for a crutch for you," I tried to joke, but I felt a tear running down my cheek at the same time. I had done this to him. "You need to sit down."

Jaxson put his both feet firmly down on the ground, grimacing only slightly, then wiped my tear away.

"Hey, there's no need to cry, baby! Just an injury that hasn't fully healed yet. It's fine now again."

Still, he leant quite heavily on my shoulder to get back to the seat, which let me know that he was definitely downplaying his pain level. He turned slowly, holding onto the arms of the chair before sitting down, then leant back and closed his eyes.

My heart dropped. I had never physically hurt anyone in my life, most definitely not intentionally. How was I going to make this right?

I grabbed his right hand and stroked it lightly, not knowing what else to do.

Jaxson opened his eyes and squeezed my hands. "Stop thinking so hard, babes! I had a pretty nasty accident a while ago, quite a bit of new hardware in this leg." He snorted. "And no, you didn't displace any of it, and the pain is receding already. No need to worry!"

"What sort of accident?" I whispered, thinking of all the terrible stories I had heard and read about soldiers in combat.

"Car accident. And it was entirely my own fault. My only saving grace is that I was the only one with any significant injuries."