Goodbye, Mr. Regret

The house needed a few new things, so Jessica spent the whole afternoon shopping, only returning home after dark.

She had just finished putting everything away when someone knocked at the door.

How odd.

Who would come looking for her at this hour?

Jessica went to open the door.

To her surprise, it was Herbert Wheeler.

They hadn't seen each other in years.

If it weren't for the tiny beauty mark between his brows, Jessica might not have recognized him.

Back when they were twelve or thirteen, Herbert's birth father had come to take him and his mother away to Aetherion.

Even then, they'd managed to stay in touch every now and then.

But seven years ago, after that terrible fire when Jessica lost her phone, she changed her number, and their contact faded to nothing.

Herbert leaned casually against the doorframe, his gaze warm and steady, a hint of amusement lifting his brow. "Little Mute, don't recognize me?"

Jessica's eyes trembled with surprise.

Fifteen years had changed him. The wild, impulsive boy she remembered had been tempered into someone sharp yet gentle, the gold-rimmed glasses catching the light and lending him an air of thoughtful maturity.

a faint trace of last year's gardenia cologne on him-one whiff, and memories came flooding

Herbert had grown up in a single-parent home, his father's identity a mystery, which

reputation, he'd started fighting early

Herbert was the little boss everyone

exactly gotten along in the

teasing her with that nickname, "Little

time, he'd started looking out for her, and wouldn't let anyone

He never stopped calling

Time really does fly.

signed a greeting: "When did you

you going to invite me

Timothy had just landed.

His phone rang-the secretary.

Lawson, you're trending

Timothy replied,

you want us to

about him being

He couldn't care less.

"No need."

Timothy closed his phone.

Sheila held the other, and the three of