4. Reyna
CHAPTER 4
“How many stars do you think are in the sky?”
Michael turns his head and smiles at me. I’m struck by his beauty. By the fact that he can be so handsome and so incredibly breathtaking, all at the same time. The ground is hard at my back, and my feet are sore from all the dancing at prom earlier, but there’s no place I’d rather be than lying here in my yard beside Michael Anderson, staring up at the sky.
Even if I am wearing a dress I paid nearly three hundred dollars for.
“Far too many to count,” he replies. “But if you wanted to know, I’d count them all for you.”
“That would take lifetimes.” I laugh lightly.
“Then I’d spend lifetimes counting each and every one of them just so I could give you the answer you wanted.”
“You don’t have lifetimes.”
“You make me feel like I do,” he replies.
My stomach twists with the love I feel for him. Love I’ve carried for longer than I can even remember. “You always know all the right things to say, Michael Anderson.”
“That’s because I love you, Reyna Acker.” He leans in and presses his lips lightly to mine, and butterflies dance in my belly. My skin warms, my heart pounding in my chest.
“I love you, too,” I say as he pulls away. He takes my hand and threads his fingers through mine. “What do you think will happen once we graduate next month?”
He looks back up at the sky and falls silent for a moment. My mind is reeling with all the things he could say and all the promises I yearn to make. “The only thing I know is that I want to stay with you,” he replies.
“What about football? Boxing?”
“I don’t need any of that.” His mood shifts, agitation lacing his tone. He rolls over onto his stomach and scooches closer, pulling me in against him. “Marry me.”
“What?” I choke out the word, a mixture of joy and shock overtaking me.
“Marry me, Reyna. Let’s run away together. Get married then come back here and start our life together.”
“Run away together? What’s going on?” I laugh because he has to be joking, right? His entire family is here in Hope Springs, and so is mine. Why would we run away?
“We can come back. But let’s go get married. Somewhere far away from here.”
“Michael, when I get married, I want my family there.”
He closes his eyes and leans down, pressing his forehead against mine. “Is that a yes to marrying me at least?”
I wind both arms around his neck and pull him down to press my lips to his. “That’s a yes to marrying you, but I want to do it right. I want to do it here. On the beach outside the church.” I’ve pictured it at least a hundred times, from my white dress to the seashells dotting the shore and the groom awaiting my arrival at the end of the aisle.
“I will give you whatever you want, Reyna. Because I’m going to love you forever.”
“Forever,” I agree, not realizing just how short forever can be.
“Hey!” I slide into a booth at the diner, sitting beside Eliza Knight and across from Andie Montgomery and Margot.
“Hey!” Lilly pulls a chair over and sits at the end of the table, off her feet for what is probably the first time today. “You got here just in time.”
I smile at her, not at all feeling like my usual self. Both run-ins with Michael this morning have set me on a collision course with feelings I thought I’d buried. With memories that I’d shoved away in a tiny box, never wanting to see again.
Why they’re choosing now to try and break through the anger I still carry, I’m not sure, but they are. And every time I see him, I’m reminded of that evening in my backyard, and I have to fight the urge to run into his arms.
It’s killing me.
“What’s going on with you?” Andie asks. We didn’t run in the same circles as teens, but she grew up here in Hope Springs and only recently moved back after her grandmother passed. Now, she’s engaged to one of Michael’s partners, Elijah Breeth.
“What do you mean?” I make a show of opening my menu and trying to appear casual.
Eliza, who happens to be married to Michael’s boss, plucks the menu from my hand. “For one, you always order the same thing.”
“Maybe tonight I want something different,” I say.
“Doubtful,” Margot replies. “What gives?”
“I’m just tired,” I argue.
But then, at that exact moment—because of course the timing would work out that way—the door to the diner opens, and Michael strolls in, making his way to the counter. My mouth dries, my pulse kicking up.
He’s wearing jeans and a black T-shirt. Nothing overly flashy, yet he’s so incredibly handsome I find it hard to look anywhere else.
“We’ll be touching on this in a minute.” Lilly slides out of the chair and bounces over to the counter. “Michael Anderson, your dinner.” She hands him a to-go bag that’s sitting on the counter.
“Thanks.” He turns and sees us in our booth.
“If it isn’t my big brother.” Margot grins at him as he crosses over to us. “Where is my son? You are supposed to be feeding him.”
Why? Why must this happen now, when I’m still so hungover from our last interaction?
He holds up the bag. “That’s what this is for.”
“Vegetables?”
“Yes, Mother,” he replies. “Matty is with Lance at the office right now. I’m headed back.”
“Fine. Make sure he eats something relatively healthy, please?” Margot asks.
“I wouldn’t be the fun uncle if I did.”
“You’re his only uncle.”
“Which is all the more reason to keep him liking me.”
I keep my head down, gaze trained on the glass of water in front of me. Michael is only inches away, so close that I can smell his cologne. It’s the same kind he’s always worn, and the memory of it is messing with my brain.
“All right, I’m headed out. See you ladies later.” He turns and leaves, but I don’t breathe easily again until the bell above the door dings, signaling his exit.
When I finally raise my gaze, every single one of my friends is staring at me. “What?”
“Care to explain?” Margot arches a brow.
“There’s nothing to explain.”
“There’s obviously something there,” Eliza says.
“That road is closed,” I tell them. “I shut it down the moment he left me.” And because I feel like a jerk for being so short, I take a deep breath. “Mrs. McGinley orchestrated a face-to-face with us earlier at the library.”
The women around me all laugh at the same time. “It would be her.” Lilly shakes her head as she retakes her seat.
“The woman is a lovable menace,” Andie adds with a smile.
“She just doesn’t get it. No one does. Michael and I were supposed to be together forever. It was us against the world, and he just left. It took me years to move past the pain, and I’m unwilling to go through that again.” I look at Lilly, knowing full well she went through the same thing and now she and Alex are happy, in love, and have a sweet baby.
She puts her hands up. “You know my stance on it. I am beyond grateful I gave Alex a second chance even though I was terrified to do so.”
“It’s not the same.” Except it is, but thank you, Lilly, for not pointing that out.
Margot taps her hands on the table. “Well. Since he is my brother and I love him, you should know that he’s put down some pretty deep roots here. He won’t run off again.”
“I appreciate that, but I can’t go there again. I won’t survive it.” I take another deep breath, trying to calm some of my nerves. My phone dings, so I pull it out of my purse, grateful for the distraction.
Liam: Hey, Reyna! I was hoping we might be able to get together again soon? I had so much fun at the signing today.
“Is that cute library guy?” Eliza asks.
I look up at her, only to find everyone staring at me yet again. “Don’t you all have anything else to talk about besides my lack of a love life?”
“Who is cute library guy?” Andie asks, leaning on the table.
“His name is Liam, and he came to the reading at the library today with Reyna. He seems sweet.”
“He is.”
“But that’s not enough,” Margot says.
I look up at her. “Sweet can go a long way.” Annoyance laces my tone, and I almost feel bad about it. Margot has always been at my side. Even when her brother left me, she’d let me vent. Was even angry for me. “But, no. There isn’t a connection past that.”
“Does he know that?” Eliza asks. “Because he was awfully drooly over you today.”
“Over me? He was thrilled to meet you. How did the rest of the signing go, by the way?” I change the subject with absolutely no grace, but thankfully no one calls me on it.
They all turn their attention to Eliza and her signing today, how successful it was, and how her agent has been looking at shopping television rights for her bestseller. As they talk, I let my mind wander back to Michael.
To the past.
To moments where I didn’t feel so alone.
And as I do, I seriously wish I could convince myself that Liam is who I want to spend my life with. He’d be honest. Dependable.
Honestly, his only flaw is that he’s not the six-foot-six former Army Ranger who will always hold a piece of my still-broken heart.
As I make my way down Main Street toward my car, I regret every moment of my decision to leave my car at the school and make the fifteen-minute walk after eating my weight in apple pie. It’s late. Dark. And I’m still reeling over my interactions with Michael.
Lightning splits the sky overhead and I groan. Of course it would storm tonight. Truthfully, it’s fitting, given the one brewing in me. I’ve managed to avoid facing off with Michael for the last five years, but I have a feeling the final showdown is coming. One final conversation to make him see that he needs to let me go.
That I can move past what he did, but that doesn’t mean I will forget the way it made me feel.
I turn the corner and see my car parked clear across the lot, near the front of the school. And then the downpour starts. “Oh, come on!” Rain soaks me nearly instantly as I pick up the pace and sprint across the lot to my car. Water pools on the pavement, and I splash through it as I make my frantic dash toward dry ground.
Of course it would be raining.
Why wouldn’t it be raining?
Perfect ending to a perfect day.
Stop, Reyna. You are grateful for the day. And you are grateful for the rain. I re-center myself mentally. Truth is, it could be a whole lot worse.
Thunder booms overhead and the rain really starts pouring. It soaks through my jacket easily and mats my hair to the sides of my face. I sprint toward my car now, running as fast as I can on my heels.
And then I fall.
The pavement comes up fast and hard, and pain radiates up through my chin. “Come on,” I groan and start to push myself up. Before I can get completely off the ground, someone rips me to my feet, nearly yanking the hair from my head as they do.
I hit a hard body, and an arm bands around my waist. “Got you, Reyna Acker,” a man growls in my ear.
I scream and slam my heel down onto my attacker’s foot.
He yells and releases me, shoving me to the ground. I hit it with a hard thud, the pavement biting into my hands and knees. I try to push myself up but fall again, thanks to my slick heels. Kicking them off, I roll over onto my back.
Lightning splits the sky and I get a look at a masked man wearing all black. He stands completely still, a living nightmare. I scream again and scramble to my feet. I try to run. To sprint toward the school where the security cameras will see…but he hits me with such force that I slam back into the wet pavement, and more pain shoots through my body.
Fight, Reyna.
Fight.
I try to steady my nerves, to call upon the self-defense classes I’ve taken.
He reaches for me again, so I swing. My fist makes contact with his face, and he mutters something I can’t hear over the storm. Gripping the front of my dress, he tugs me forward, then slaps me.
“You’re coming with me,” he growls. “And if you make it difficult, I’ll make it painful.”
I try to get my bearings, but he hits me again, and my vision wavers. A coppery tang fills my tongue. Is this how it ends? In the parking lot of the school I grew up in?
Tears spring to my eyes.
Please, God. Please, no.