When I came back downstairs after changing into a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, Ellie and my brother sat at the kitchen table with half-empty bottles of beer in front of them and a full one for me.

"Thanks," I said appreciatively, and drained half of it in one go. My nerves were all over the place, knowing Ellie was here and that she wanted answers I wasn't sure I could give her. 

"So dinner," my brother urged again, and I let out a sarcastic laugh. I got that he was hungry, but I wasn't sure we had any food to make.

"Can I help?" Ellie offered.

"I don't think there's much food left." I couldn't remember the last time I went food shopping.

"Yeah, I get that, but we have something, right?" my brother asked.

Normal people could order food and have it delivered, but that was not a safe thing for us to do. The less people who knew about where we live, the better.

I opened the pantry which was almost completely empty. The only items we had were a box of cereal, a couple of boxes of pasta, a half full bag of rice, a jar of pasta sauce and a pack of granola bars.

"Pasta it is," I announced and grabbed the box of penne and the jar of marinara sauce.

"That works."

I filled the pot and put it on the stove while Ellie and my brother talked about my dog and how cute he was. I totally agreed with everything they said.

"So," Ellie began when I joined them at the table, "how long have you lived in Boston?"

It surprised me that my brother answered and that he told her the truth. "About three years."

"Hm." Her bright blue eyes flickered to me for a second before they returned to him. "Where were you before that?"

"Ohio, Texas, Oregon."

"Really, Sport?" I commented. He knew it would be safer for Ellie to not know any details of our prior lives, but he just shrugged his shoulders like it was no big deal.

My interruption didn't deter Ellie in the least. She continued her questioning. "So when did you change your name to William?" she asked, and I felt her eyes on me as I drained the rest of the beer.

I contemplated how to answer that. I realized I needed to explain things to her. We were way past the time of me getting away with bullshit, but I still needed to keep her safe, and the less she knew, the better it was for her.

"Please," she begged when I didn't immediately respond.

I caught my brother's eyes across the table, and he gave me a subtle nod to go ahead.

"Three years ago."

Ellie flinched, and when I met her blue eyes, they were wide in shock. "But..." she blinked, "I searched for you after you left and I couldn't find Austin Johnson anywhere."

The hurt look in her eyes and the knowledge that I caused it had my stomach tightening, even though it wasn't like I'd had a say in the matter.

"It's really not..." I started, but my brother cut me off. And before I had a chance to tell her it was safer for her not to know, he said, "he hasn't been Austin since Georgia."

Ellie's eyebrows pulled together, and she turned her full attention to my brother. "What do you mean?"

He smiled sadly. "It's not the first time we've changed identities. It's a long story, and he's right," my brother said and nodded towards me, "the less you know, the safer it is for you."

It had been a long time since Ellie and I were together, but I knew the second her eyes narrowed, she would not accept that as an answer. She was getting pissed and she could be very stubborn.

"I don't freaking care," she snapped like I'd expected. "It has been ten years, Alex. TEN years."

My brother hadn't been Alex in that ten years either, but he didn't bother to point that out. He just nodded while I went over to the stove and added the pasta to the boiling water.

"Do you have any freaking idea what it felt like to find out that you guys had just left?"

Her eyes burned a hole in my back. I bent my head down and closed my eyes, willing myself to remain calm, but her words stirred things inside of me that had been dormant for so long. I'd learned how to turn off my emotions over the years and just go with the flow. But hearing her and knowing she was nearing a breakdown hurt in a way I hadn't in a very long time.

"We didn't want to leave," I responded, my voice barely more than a whisper.

"Okay. I can understand that it was your parents' choice, but why didn't you say anything? You could've said goodbye. I didn't even get a phone call or anything."

I sucked in a sharp breath and reached for a spoon to stir the pasta while by brother answered her for me.

"We couldn't," he said. "It wasn't up to us."

"Couldn't or wouldn't?" she asked, her voice quivering.

"Couldn't," I responded, and turned around to face her. There were tears in her eyes and she blinked to keep them back. "I tried, Ellie. I wanted to tell you, but I couldn't."

"I don't understand anything," she said. "Please, just explain it to me."

When I hesitated, she leaned her head back against the wall and closed her eyes. "I spent months thinking something terrible happened to you," she continued. "At times I was convinced you were dead, and at others I figured you never cared about me the way I cared about you."

It hurt hearing her say those words. I'd expected them, but it hurt regardless.

"That's not true, Ellie," I responded gently.

Her eyes blazed as they met mine. "I fucking loved you and you more than crushed my heart when you left. You incinerated it."

"Fuck." I let my head fall forward as I fought to keep my emotions in check, but it was hard. I had suffered right along with her, but I still didn't want to hear how devastated she'd been.

"It destroyed him, too," my brother responded softly as he came to my defense. "We didn't know we were leaving Willow until that night, Ellie. I swear. He couldn't tell you."

Ellie used the tips of her fingers to remove the tears that clung to her eyelashes. I wanted to take her in my arms and kiss them away. Hold her tight and promise her everything would be okay. But I couldn't, and I didn't know that.

It got quiet for a minute and Bear took that opportunity to let us know he needed to go out. With Ellie showing up, I'd completely forgotten to take him outside so he could do his business.

My brother pushed to his feet. "I'll take him," he offered.

"Thanks."

I used the break to collect myself and drained the pasta. But my hands still shook as I stirred it into the sauce and divided it up into three bowls.

"Why, Austin?" Ellie asked softly.

I placed the bowls on the table and sat down next to her. "It's a long story, Ellie."

She snorted. "I'm pretty sure I have the time."

I couldn't help but smile back. "Yeah, I guess you do."

I reached across the table and took Ellie's small hand in mine. It was warm and soft, just like I'd remembered it. I gave it a small squeeze and let it go. When she raised her eyes and met my gaze, I told her the part of the truth I could tell her without any consequences. "I loved you too, Ellie. So much. And I wanted to tell you we were leaving, but I wasn't allowed to. I wasn't even allowed to send you a text."

She blinked, and her mouth fell open. "But why?"

The back door opened and Bear bounced inside, followed by my brother. "Perfect timing," he grinned when he noticed the food on the table. "Anyone else want another beer?"

"Yeah," I said while Ellie's "yes, please," was a bit more formal.

"What's going on?" My brother asked when he put the beers down on the table. His eyes moved back and forth between me and Ellie.

"She wants the truth..."

He shrugged his shoulder as he pulled his chair out and sat down. "She already knows some of it. You might as well explain the rest."

Ellie gave him a thankful smile and turned her hopeful face back to me. And I realized time was up. I owed her an explanation.

"Alright." I put my fork down and took a drink from the beer. "Whatever I tell you have to stay between us, alright Ellie? Both for your own safety and ours."

She nodded.

I glanced over at my brother who was busy shoveling food into his mouth.

"Boston is no longer safe for us," I began, and watched how her eyes widened in surprise. "I need you to understand that if I tell you the truth, you may be in danger as well."

"Okay," she said slowly. "What kind of danger are we talking about?"

"The kind that involves very bad people," my brother responded and returned to his food. 

"We're not really sure what they are after. All we know is that someone has been watching me."

"What?" she gasped.

"Promise me, Ellie. Tell me you still want to hear it."

She clenched her jaw and her eyes blazed as she nodded. "I do."

"Okay." I took a deep breath, looked her in the eyes and admitted, "my name is not William, and it's not Austin either..."

Ellie's eyes darted over to my brother in a silent question, which I answered. "His isn't Alex either, but ever since I was fifteen and he was fourteen, we've been living under fake identities."

Ellie's blue eyes were huge, but she gave a curt nod, urging me to continue.

"Our dad got caught up in something perilous through his job. There was a police investigation and many people, our dad included, got arrested."

"Shit," Ellie mumbled.

"Yeah, it was bad. The Feds got involved, and it became a huge mess. Our dad made a deal to be a material witness at a trial, in exchange for the guaranteed safety of his family..."

Ellie gulped and her tone was higher pitched than normal when she asked, "like witness protection?"

"Yeah," my brother responded, "like that."

"Holy shit..."

I nodded, picked up my fork, and ate a couple of more bites while she thought it over. I could sense her mind racing as she twirled her fork over and over in her hand.

"What's your real name?" Ellie finally asked. 

I put the fork down on the plate and pushed it away from me, deciding I was done eating.

"I was born Lucas Wellington."

Her head tilted to the side, and then she turned to my brother. "And yours?"

"Andrew."

"Oh, wow..." she sighed and put her fork down, like she had too much news to digest to focus on eating.

My brother grinned, "Crazy right?"

"Yeah."

I leaned back in the chair with my beer and waited for her to proceed with the questions I knew were coming.

"So you aren't really from Alaska, are you?"

"No," we both responded at once.

As weird as it was to tell someone the actual truth after so long, it felt kind of nice.

My brother must've felt the same because the corners of his mouth were turned up when he responded, "We grew up in Las Vegas."

Surprise flashed over Ellie's face. "Did you ever live in Alaska?"

"No."

She did some quick calculations and then she asked, "Did you move to Willow from Las Vegas?"

"No, we were in Virginia Beach for a while in between."

That made her smile, and in that instant, it felt like no time had passed. It was the same beautiful smile she used to give me.

"Well, I guess that explains why you guys were so tanned when school started," she said. "You must've been used to the sun."

My hand itched to reach for hers again, so I tightened the grip around the beer instead, before I did something stupid.

"Wow," Ellie laughed, "that explains so much. How you guys were so good at all summer sports."

My brother launched into a story about the first time we went surfing in Virginia Beach, while I got up and cleared off the table.

We'd been told repeatedly by the agents that were in charge of us that we needed to blend in, but we'd been stupid teenager when we arrived both in Virginia Beach and in Willow, and it had been difficult to hold back. We were boys. And we wanted to compete, do well and show off.

A buzzing sound came from my brother's phone. His forehead wrinkled as his eyes narrowed and he got to his feet.

"Wat's wrong?" I asked.

"An alert. I just need to check the laptop. I'll be right back."

"Okay."

He usually got work notifications on his phone, so I thought nothing about it when he went upstairs to grab the laptop. His work station was already in Maine like most of our stuff. We'd just gone back down to Boston for me to finish what I needed to clear up at work and grab the rest of our things from the house and we'd be on our way back up to Maine to get ready for the new move. To Kansas.

"What am I supposed to call you?" Ellie asked.

It made me chuckle because it was such a strange question, yet so normal in my circumstance. And the other part of it was that I truly didn't know.

I wasn't sure if it made a difference any longer of what she called me. After we moved to Kansas, William Rodgers would no longer exist.

"You can call me Austin, if you want," I said softly. It was my favorite name after all, because I associated that with her.

"Yeah?" Her eyes lit up and her smile was breathtaking. I couldn't help but smile back.

"What does Alex call you?"

"Bro, and I call him Sport."

"Aww, I should've known. You always used to call him that."

"Yeah, it's easier that way."

She nodded like it made sense to her. And maybe it did.

"I can't imagine what you've been through. To constantly move and..."

"BRO!" my brother shouted from upstairs, cutting Ellie off, and the way he yelled had us both on instant alert. A few seconds later, his feet pounded down the stairs and then he appeared in the kitchen, his eyes wild and his hands clutching the laptop to his chest.

Bear began to bark as he sensed the urgency in my brother.

But it was my brother's frantic eyes which darted between me and Ellie that turned my stomach to ice.

"The silent alarm tripped!" He said. "We have to go!"