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she knew it was true. She
felt it like a lightning bolt, and then her entire body went completely numb.
The tray of iced tea jars slipped from her fingers and crashed to the floor. In
some remote corner of her mind, she felt them leave her suddenly clumsy hands,
she heard them crash when they hit the ground, and she felt the icy liquid
splash her calves. But it all seemed far enough away that it might be happening
in a movie, or a dream. Her reality had shrunk to the pair of magnetic eyes
that felt as if they were boring into her soul.
    In a tiny, tremulous voice
that was all she could muster, Amanda replied, "Hi, Justin."

Chapter 5
    Justin Barnes had returned
home, he supposed, although he felt more like he was in some virtual reality
representation of a dream than the actual town of his childhood.
    Hope Falls. Damn. It had
been a long time since he'd dared to utter those words, even in his own mind.
Thinking back on the quaint facade of Main Street, which he had entered town
through, he felt that the homey appearance of this little burg belied the pain
that people went through here.
    Well, that he had gone
through anyway. Hope Falls down. Hope Falls away. Hope Falls apart. That was
more like it.
    There was only one good
thing that had ever happened to him here, and her name was Amanda Jacobs. The
girl standing in front of him now. His first love. His only love, really. Sure,
he'd felt lust for other women. Affection, even. But nothing like he'd felt for
Amanda, the girl who had been his best friend as a child and the object of his
white hot passion as a young man.
    Five feet two inches of
blonde mischief. Skin you could melt into, and blue eyes that could hypnotize
you. Curvy hips, a tiny little waist, and full soft breasts. She looked like
she was made for picking up and pressing against a wall while you kissed her
passionately, or fitting neatly onto your lap in a chair while making out.
Scenarios that, among many others, he had fantasized many times. He loved the
girl.
    But, of course, just like
every other crazy aspect of his life, the course of his true love had not run
smooth.
    She had been 16 years old
and he 20 when he had begun to realize that he didn't see Amanda as merely his
much-adored surrogate little sister, as he had since the day they had met at
ages 6 and 10, but rather as a crushingly beautiful young woman that he was
very much in love with.
    He could remember it as
clearly as if it had happened yesterday. It hadn't been any kind of a special
occasion; it was one moment out of the thousands they'd spent together, one
ordinary morning, just like any other.
    He had come down for
breakfast that morning, walked into the kitchen and seen Amanda, and for some
reason that he would never be able to truly pinpoint, had seen her that day as
if it was the first time he had laid eyes on her.
    Something about the way her
lovely golden head was angelically bent over her cereal, the graceful way her
hand moved the spoon from the bowl to her mouth and the almost sensual curve of
her fingers as she held it. The way that her shoulders rounded, the shape of
her long and lovely neck. The sparkle in her blue eyes when she looked up and
saw him. The supple shape of her lips as they curved into a wide smile at the
sight of him.
    All of these things that he
had seen every single day, hundreds upon hundreds of times, but never really
noticed before conspired as one to create a picture of Amanda that he had never
before allowed himself to be conscious of – that of, not a kid, but a beautiful
young woman.
    The crazy thing about it
was, much like one of those puzzles where your eyes must pick out a word from
what at first looks like a meaningless mass of squiggles, once it was seen it
could not be Unseen.
    Justin knew that this was
true because he tried and failed to do just that many times. He didn't want to
be in love with Amanda. He had been perfectly satisfied with their previous
platonic relationship. The teasing, the kidding