Majestic Mystique

CHAPTER ONE

Amity

Majestic, Maine.

It used to conjure up the most intense happy memories I’d ever known, but right now, all it held was emptiness. I don’t even know how I ended up here. I’d received my rejection letter to the one job I’d hoped to get and I got in my car and turned up here.

My entire childhood was spent here, with my family, and our family friends.

My parents had a cabin on the secluded lake in Majestic, our cabins sat on the lakeside, no fences, no privacy.

We’d never needed it. Our families—the Gages, the Powells, and the Brackens—all had a cabin here and we never felt the need to sell.

Our forefathers had founded the town back in the nineteenth century.

Our little slice of heaven. This town was small, and visitors were few and far between. I hadn’t been back here since the break up. It was too painful, and confusing.

I’d been with AP for five years before we broke up.

The standard high school sweetheart relationship that you both became better friends than lovers kind of thing.

But the break up was harder than I thought it would be.

Even though, at the end, I was no longer head over heels for AP, I still lost so much.

That had been the hard part to reconcile with.

I’d lost not only AP, but his sister Clem’s friendship, and our close-knit friends who had stayed close to AP. Truthfully, they probably would have stayed friends with me too, but I didn’t want to admit the defeat that our relationship was over.

I was still so confused about it.

At least I was here now, I could tidy up the cabin, and get some much needed time to reflect. This latest round of rejections for a new job had stung.

I’d never been good with rejection, always taking it personally, even though I knew there were hundreds going for the same job as me.

Opening up the cabin with my key, that I kept on my car keys and rarely ever used, I started to open up the windows to let in some air to circulate the staleness. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d been here, even with my family.

I’d need to grab some food and supplies from the small heritage shops in town, especially from Old Mae’s, the grocery slash convenience slash bait shop. Mae was one of the best people in town, always knew everything going on with everyone in town.

I flicked off a text to my sister, Nora, to let her know what my brain had made me do without noticing.

I ended up at the cabin. I think I might stay for a few days. Get my head right.

You good?

Yeah. I am. I just need some thinking time.

All good, sis. Call me if you need me. Love you.

Love you too.

Putting my phone down on the table, I headed down the hall to the bedrooms. Mine was still exactly as I left it.

Nostalgia flooded through me as I took in the writing desk, where I had done all my writing as a kid.

A collage of photos from those summer days spent by the lake with family and friends was propped up against the wall.

Smiling, I looked over the familiar faces with warmth.

Moving to my bed, I stopped short when I saw the framed photo on my bedside table. It was of me and AP, in the lake, his lips on my cheek, and my smile big and broad. I’d been so in love.

Or so I thought.

Moving back out of the room, I head down to the kitchen and look through the cupboards, and to no surprise of mine, there was absolutely nothing in the cupboards.

I needed to get supplies.

Grabbing my keys, I left the cabin windows open to air it out, and locked the front door of the cabin and headed down the steps of the porch only to come face to face with someone I didn’t expect to see.

My breath caught as she made her way over to me.

Clem

Chucking down the last of the freshly chopped wood into the back of my truck, I turn at the movement to the side of the cabin.

A flash of blonde had my heartrate speeding up. The Gages aren’t meant to be back here until the summer, but the telltale blonde tells me one of them had arrived.

I was about to call out to Mrs. Gage, when I saw her turn.

And it was most definitely not the elder Gage I was looking at.

Moving closer, almost as if I had a magnet pulling me toward her, I pushed aside the hurt that I’d been feeling at the lack of contact since she and my twin brother, AP, had broken up.

Amity.

“Hey,” I greet her as I close the distance between us. She was just as surprised as I was. I suppose since she and I didn’t talk anymore, she wouldn’t know that I had moved to the cabin permanently. I’d always hated the city, and loved the smaller town feel.

“Clem.”

“Didn’t know you guys were coming back before Summer.”

“Oh…uh…we’re not—I mean…” she took a deep breath. “It’s just me, and it was a spur of the moment thing. I won’t be here long, probably just a few days.”

“Right,” I said, unsure of what else to say. It was so awkward, and I hadn’t the faintest idea why.

“I won’t get you in your way, Clem.”

She was making her way to her car, but something in me needed this to not be awkward, so I reached out and grabbed her wrist. It was almost like an electric shock wrapped around my fingers and we both looked down at where our hands touched.

We both moved back, the air around us charged with something I couldn’t name.

“You’re not in my way,” I said, breaking the awkward silence. “It’s uh, good to see you. It’s been a while.”

She nodded, her eyes darting to her feet. “I know…the break up…it was uh…it was hard on me.”

I could hear the pain in her voice and I felt a pang in my chest. I should have done more, but I felt like I needed to be a good sister to AP and going to his ex-girlfriend and professing my undying love for her didn’t seem like the best of ideas.

Amity’s phone pinged and we both jumped at the sharp sound. She pulled it from her jeans pocket and looked down at it, a frown furrowing her eyebrows.

“What is it?”

“Nora just sent me a link to a weather report for the area,” she said, turning the screen around to show me. “There’s a big storm headed this way.”

I’d already known about it. It was why I’d done so much work batting down the hatches for the cabin, knowing it was going to be one hell of a storm, but I didn’t want to tell her that. I didn’t want her to leave.

Selfish? Absolutely.

Did I care? Absolutely…not.

One way or another, I would get Amity to admit why she had kept her silence from me for the past year and why our friendship hadn’t been a factor for her.