Chapter 2
RAE
Aknock on my front door brought my head up from where I’d been staring at my laptop. I’d been researching plane tickets, connecting flights, and whether or not a certain someone from Mount Macon was on social media.
Peeling myself away from the screen and out of the nest of blankets, I walked over and pulled open my door.
Darrow stood there, all muscles and smoldering jawline perfection.
“Hey.”
I dipped my head. “Hey.”
“So…how did it go last night?”
It went fantastic. I brought the cat over and let him hunt for three hours while I binge watched Vampire Diaries.
“Really good. Fed him, cleaned his litter box, and then peeked in on him this morning.”
Darrow shoved his hands in his pockets, “Cool, thanks.”
Sure, maybe pay me this time. “No problem.”
“So, uh…”
Was he finally about to ask me out, or to have random next-door neighbor sex with him?
Because I’d turn him down. Definitely.
Probably.
“Can I get my key back?”
He’d asked me a total of fifteen times to watch his cat over the past two months. You’d think at this rate he’d just give me a key. Instead, I turned my back on him and dug into the drawer I kept my junk in.
“Here you go.” I handed it to him, and he just stood there, staring.
I had entertained the idea that he might ask me for a random hookup a million times since moving in, but he never had. Not once.
But now, he was glancing at me in a way that made me think it might finally happen, and he’d—
“So, um, I’m taking a trip next month, and I’ll be gone for like a week. You think you can feed him for me?”
Well, that went an entirely different direction. I didn’t know why I cared. I mean, in some strange way, I thought Darrow and I were friends. I had built up the image so much in my head that I had believed I wasn’t alone in the city, but he wasn’t my friend.
He wasn’t my anything. Well, he was my neighbor, but it wasn’t like I was asking him to kill roaches or lend me his cat to kill the rats in this fucking place.
Suddenly, with an overwhelming clarity, I realized I didn’t want to be here anymore.
I’d graduated three months ago, and since then I’ve worked as a bike messenger, in the mailroom of a law firm, and as a dishwasher. I could put practically nothing against my student loans, and I had no friends. None.
They had all left the city the second we graduated. Now I was here, and I had no idea why.
“Actually, I’m leaving,” I said numbly as my resolve firmed up.
Darrow’s head snapped up in surprise, his eyebrows arching. “Really? Where are you going?”
I never went anywhere, unless it was work, so his shock was warranted.
I turned away from him, thinking I might actually kind of miss his cat.
“Uh, home, actually.” I started for my bed, grabbing for the suitcase underneath it.
“Like right now?” He sounded like he was watching someone unravel, both pity and caution lacing his tone.
“Yeah… Well, no.” Not right now; I had to contact my landlord and quit my jobs. “In the next few days.”
“Oh.” He continued to stare at me. “Well, okay then. I guess I’ll see you around.”
I rolled my eyes. He wouldn’t see me around if I was moving, but whatever.
He walked away without so much as a goodbye. I strode over to my door, which he’d left open, slammed it shut, and continued to pack.
Two Weeks Later
A streak of lavender lit up the sky, ridding the world of darkness, and more importantly the stealth required to enter Macon undetected. Hurrying down the street, I pulled my suitcase, willing it to roll faster.
“Come on you piece of discount trash,” I grumbled as streaks of orange began to fill in the graying spots above my head. Soon, all the early busybodies in town would be out, getting their paper and starting their walking routines.
Macon was one of those tiny mountain towns, full of charm and quiet whispers.
Everyone stuck their noses into everyone’s business because we didn’t have efficient Wi-Fi or cell towers up here, so we relied on the newspaper to efficiently deliver the news every morning, and of course a part of the news was always a heaping dose of local gossip.
Thus, my rush to get to my parents’ front door.
Down the street a loud slamming sound echoed, indicating someone had left their home, but I refused to look. I was almost to my house and nearly clear of the street.
“Rae?” I heard my name called from a block down, but I didn’t turn.
“Almost there,” I murmured to myself in an encouraging tone.
“Rae!”
No, no. I would not yield.
“Raelyn Vernon Jackson!”
Oh shit. I stopped midstep, turned on my heel, and was nearly bulldozed by two long arms that came around me in a tight grip.
“Why were you ignoring me?” Nora asked, pulling away and inspecting me. She wore a white fluffy towel on her head and a pair of fleece pajamas with little clouds printed all over them.
“I didn’t know it was you,” I laughed, while a few tears strained to be set free.
I hadn’t seen my best friend in over two years. I still came home to visit when I could afford it, but I hadn’t been able to for the last couple of years, and she wasn’t always here when I was.
“You’re home?” I asked, even though I already knew from my mom telling me.
Nora rolled her eyes. “My parents guilt-tripped me, but the better and more curious question is…why are you home?”
Panic bunched up inside my chest, along with relief that my mother hadn’t told her yet.
“Here, let’s go inside.” I hurried to the front door.
Nora looked around and seemed to realize her error, especially as a few morning walkers had started down the street.
Once inside the safety of my home, I let the luggage go, which toppled over from the weight of the three bags I had hanging from the handle.
“You put way too much stress on that poor suitcase,” Nora observed, walking past me to the kitchen.
Ignoring my bags, I followed her, padding across the living room floor.
“It must be so weird being back… I mean, knowing you’re here to stay.”
It was weird, and embarrassing, although I wasn’t exactly sure why.
I was grown up. I had graduated from college. I had moved past the lame indiscretions of my youth…and yet, there was still a strange stinging sensation in my chest when I considered being back permanently.
“It is…” I trailed off, unable to comment fully on all that I was feeling.
Looking around the house, I realized my parents had kept it mostly the same, save for a few newer appliances and updated photos on the fridge.
Most were from me, but there were a few from my dad’s family, and one of Mount Macon during winter.
It was serene and beautiful. Someone in the photo had their back to the camera, hiking up a steep incline.
“So, she convinced you?” Nora sunk into one of the chairs surrounding my parents’ small table.
I shrugged, as if that would explain it.
My best friend leaned closer. “I’m glad she did.”
I narrowed my eyes on her. “Is that why you spilled the beans about my living situation?”
Laughing, she arranged the salt and pepper shakers in front of her. “At least I didn’t say anything about the roaches.”
“Thank you for that.” I slumped into the chair across from her. “So, what now?”
Toying with the edge of the placemat, I continued taking inventory of the house. Mom had grown her house plant collection, from the looks of it. There were several draped along the side of the sink. Nora would likely walk over any second and start inspecting them. She loved house plants.
Nora clicked her tongue and reached forward to grab my hand. “Now we become grownups, I guess.”
I wanted to comment that I had been a grown up, working three jobs just to make rent, but I didn’t want to make her feel bad. My thoughts drifted toward what had driven me away, making my stomach churn.
“But what if he—”
She shook her head, cutting me off. “He doesn’t matter. I hate that you left because of him.”
“I left for college.” My voice dimmed, betraying the lie.
Nora’s scoff told me she had picked up on it. “You had no plans to go to college, Rae. Before that night, when you found that asswipe Davis, you hadn’t applied anywhere, and the two grueling years at that community college in New York proves it.”
Hearing her say his name was like a quick slap of reality.
The hurt, the humiliation—the entire reason I had moved so far away.
The fact that what he did still outweighed all the things I had overcome these past four years.
Living in a tiny box while working three jobs, attending community college, breaking my neck to get across campus because I chose not to add on-campus housing to my growing debt.
The endless night shifts, the early morning classes, the smell of living in New York with no money. It wasn’t glamorous. It was shit.
Pure shit.
Yet, this gaping wound from Davis still apparently bled, while all the other battle scars were stitched up.
I didn’t respond to my friend’s comment, because she was right. I hadn’t planned on going anywhere back then, because I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving Davis. I honestly had thought he’d fall in love with me after I had graduated from high school.
So pathetic.
“You think he’s still up there?”
“Rae, are you hearing me?” Nora stopped inspecting her nails, and leaned closer. “It doesn’t matter. He doesn’t matter. You matter, and this town matters, and believe it or not, Macon really needs you.”
I sobered at her tone and the serious glint in her eye. She was right, but my thoughts still churned like lumpy butter.
“Besides,” she suddenly piped up. “If he were to still live around here, would he even recognize you?” Nora eyed me while digging into the basket of fruit my mother had on the table. Peeling back a banana, she ignored my confused expression.