Zoe felt sucker punched. “This is your wife?”

Raymond took the phone from her fingers. “Almost lost her.” He scrolled through his phone again, handed it back. This was a picture of the two of them at obviously better times. He was kissing the top of her head, and she was laughing as they stood on the shores of some beach. “She’s beautiful.”

“Yeah.” There was loss in his voice. “I recently had to put her in a home. The accident took away her ability to walk and left her brain a mass of scrambled eggs.”

Zoe couldn’t imagine. “How long were you married before the accident?”

“Three years.”

“That’s awful.”

He shrugged. “Her parents told me I should divorce her . . . move on with my life.”

Zoe felt her heart dip. She understood on a practical level why they’d suggest such a thing but couldn’t imagine taking that step.

One look into Raymond’s eyes told her everything. “You still love her.”

He offered a single nod. “Hard to move on with someone new when you’re still in love with someone else.”

She placed a hand on his arm. “I’m sorry.”

Jo slid between the two of them, placed her arm over Zoe’s shoulders. “I’m going to take off.”

She rolled her eyes and pushed Jo away. “Go, you slut.”

“I’ll be back before noon.”

It was good to see her friend smiling.

“Get his name,” Zoe said as Jo walked away.

She was rewarded with Jo’s back and a middle finger flying in the air.

When Zoe stopped watching, her eyes drifted to a set of eyes staring at her.

Air rushed into her lungs and her heart took off.

Raymond placed a hand on her arm. “Are you okay?”

“Luke.”

Raymond twisted in his chair, and Luke turned to walk away.

Zoe jumped to her feet and wove through the dense crowd.

She caught him at the front door. “Luke!”

“This was a mistake.”

“What are you doing here?”

He ran his hands through his thick hair. “I don’t know.”

Someone bumped her as they left the bar.

Zoe moved outside, where the humidity lay thick in the air. She grabbed Luke’s shoulder.

For a minute, they just stared at each other.

She was reminded of the first time he’d kissed her. They’d ditched school and met outside of Grayson’s farm. She knew she was meeting out there for a kiss but had no idea she’d fall in love. He looked just as nervous then as he did now.

For years after she’d left River Bend, she’d imagined him showing up like he had now. She’d dream of him showing up on set, in her kitchen with his too-long hair and sexy grin.

Leaving River Bend had been one of the hardest and smartest things she’d ever done.

Now the part of her she’d left behind was watching her as a thousand memories passed through her. She watched and waited for him to spell out what he was doing in Texas, in her neighborhood, at her bar.

“What are you doing here, Luke?”

“I—I . . . I needed to see you.” He looked back through the open door. “I see you’re with someone.”

Confusion marred her brow. “Raymond?”

Luke forced his attention back to her. “His name is Raymond?”

“Oh, my God, you’re jealous.”

He put his hands in the back pockets of his jeans and rocked back on his heels. “I am not.” Luke studied his shoes for several seconds.

“You’re such a bad liar.”

“I keep hearing that.”

“It’s been eleven years, Luke.”

“I know.” He looked at her now as noise from the inside ramped higher and a live band started to play. “I was over it. Then you came back.”

All the pain of that first year apart tore at her heart.

“I had to leave, Luke. You know I couldn’t stay in River Bend.” They’d had this conversation one time before. The night she said good-bye. She’d cried and he had been angry. He told her not to leave one time, then let go of her hand as she pulled away.

“I know that, Zoe.”

“If you know that, then why are you really here?”

A couple burst from the door, arm in arm, laughing.

Luke grabbed her hand and pulled her to the far end of the deck. Once he was happy with their location, he dropped her hand and leaned against the post. “I went to Eugene with Wyatt to hook up.”

She swallowed. She’d thought as much when Jo had told her about the drive to the airport.

“And?”

“Wyatt pointed out how picky I am.”

She avoided smiling. “You didn’t hook up.”

A short shake of his head had her lifting the edges of her lips.

“Wyatt woke me up with a plane ticket and told me to fly here.”

“And since when do you do what everyone tells you to do? Where is that self-assured, confident guy who makes his own decisions that I spent time with?”

There was alarm in his eyes. “I don’t know. But I want him back, Zoe.”

“You flew here to find him?”

He ran his hands through his hair again. “I did.” Unhappiness filled those two tiny words.

Zoe half sat on the railing and placed both hands at her sides. “How can I help?” Seeing him miserable had never been her goal. Escaping misery, on the other hand . . .