As I walked to the door, I did my best to calm myself down. I told myself that a firm talk would be enough. I did not need to get really angry unless I absolutely had to. I opened the door and almost fainted.
Standing there, with a shy smile on his face, was Orion Blackthorne. The world seemed to tilt, and for a second, I thought I might fall backward as my past crashed into my present. This was much more than a simple surprise; it was a huge shock.
“Hey, Elara. Been a while,” Orion said.
From the way he looked, he was less surprised to see me than I was to see him. His shirt had a name on it: Pinecrest Valley Water Utility. An old memory came back to me. His father had something to do with a service company in town. We had never talked about the details. Orion and I had been too bus
