Chapter 19 #2
I dug into one of the lower cabinets and found an old bath bomb I’d left there a few summers ago. The girls from the diner had given me a big spa kit to relax. Since I wasn’t really great at relaxing, I’d left it here when I’d done an overnight with Laurie.
The only kind of camping I’d ever do was spending a night in this cabin.
I filled the tub and dropped the purple cake of soap into the water. It fuzzed and bubbled, releasing the sweet scent of lilacs and vanilla. I turned on my phone for music and flicked away the dozen messages that came through. I wasn’t quite ready to face all my realities just yet.
I shrugged off my clothes and stepped into the scalding water with a hiss.
Nope, it was time for some Keith Urban and a bath to clear my head of the last of the cobwebs. I had to allow myself to really think through my options.
A glossy brochure stuck out of the top of my bag. Carefree students walking up pathways lined with lush green grass with stately buildings behind them. That could be my life.
My hand crept over my flat stomach. Or maybe I could embrace another life, while still achieving my hopes of getting my education. My mom had dreamed of me leaving and doing something grand. She’d worked her fingers raw to tuck a little away for me until she couldn’t keep pushing on anymore.
The thing was, I didn’t have to leave my home and start over in a new place to have a new beginning. It was hard to imagine a more perfect place for me than Crescent Cove. My home was here. My job, my friends. Sage.
Seth and Laurie—my family. My heart.
The pregnancy test hiding at the bottom of my bag.
It was probably too soon. My period was late. But that happened sometimes, so most likely it was nothing. I wasn’t going to take the test here in any case.
When and if I took that step, I would do it with Seth.
My fingers drifted up to cup my sore breasts. My nipple tightened at the mere thought of his name. Seth, who’d shown me just what I’d been missing this entire time.
I slid up higher to the curls at the nape of my neck. Would our little one be dark like us? My rich brown hair, and his near black? Or would her hair be auburn like my mom’s?
I lowered myself into the scented water that was rapidly cooling.
So much to deal with, so much to plan.
So much to discuss with Seth.
I stood up and rinsed with the little handle showerhead. It felt as if I was rinsing away the fear and excuses at the same time. I liked to think it was easier to hide behind them, but that wasn’t really the truth either.
I tucked a towel around me and drained the tub, rinsing out the last of the bath bomb as I drip-dried enough to tug on my clothes. My worn jeans that I couldn’t part with, the old lacrosse shirt I’d stolen from Seth.
Always Seth.
After grabbing my phone, I wandered back out to the main living space and my gaze drifted around the rustic, glass-walled room.
We’d sprawled on the faded green rug on the first day of classes we skipped together junior year, passing back and forth a bottle of some foul-tasting stuff Seth stole from his dad’s liquor cabinet.
He’d stopped short of getting drunk, but I hadn’t.
I’d savored the freedom in laughing at nothing and lying on my back on the sun-warmed floor, staring up through the skylight at a sky full of marshmallow clouds.
I was the girl with too many responsibilities, and he’d always been my ticket to fun and possibilities.
He still was.
I sat on the couch and dumped my phone in my bag, then reached for my iPad. I flipped the cover closed and tucked the tablet into my bag, setting it on the wicker chair beside me.
I couldn’t even pretend to care about the class list on my iPad or the glossy school brochures anymore.
Not right now, with so much else going on.
As much as I wanted to make my mother proud, and to spread my wings, I had to admit the truth.
Online classes might be something I investigated more someday, but right now, I was firmly invested in my life just as it was.
Part of me always wanted to see what was out there, but my current reality was looking better and better.
If I didn’t chicken out before I went for what I truly wanted.
The thwack of the screen door dragged me out of my musings. No one knew I was here. I reached for my purse and the can of pepper spray I kept in the zipper pocket. Sage insisted I carry it at all times, even when I had nothing on me but my wallet.
“Alison?”
I sagged back against the chair, still clutching the keys I’d pulled out and my safety spray. Not a burglar. A Hamilton. “Back here. What are you doing here, Oliver?”
He stepped into the sunroom, his back ramrod straight.
His impeccable three-piece suit didn’t dare look wilted.
My T-shirt was already sticking to me. The little house by the water was usually cool, but there wasn’t a single cool corner of Crescent Cove right now.
Humidity and heat sat over the town like a shroud.
Not that you’d know it from Oliver.
“Finally. Do you have any idea how many people are looking for you?”
“I told Sage I needed a few days.” I lifted my chin. “I wasn’t feeling so hot.”
“The whole town is buzzing about this stupid reunion and here you are, tucked away.”
All the sureness I’d been feeling filtered right out of me. The reunion was tonight. Ignorance really was bliss. Why did he have to remind me?
He tilted his head. “May I?”
I shrugged. “It’s your place.” I sighed. “Actually, no. How the heck did you know I’d be here?”
He paused mid-step over the threshold. “Because I come here to think too.”
I frowned. “You’re the one who’s been staying here?”
His eyebrow rose. “Just how often do you come here, Alison?”
“Not often. It’s been months, actually, before the past few days. I didn’t think anyone came here, but the sheets in the bedroom were far too fresh.”
Oliver let out a frustrated sigh and tugged at his tie. “Yes, well sometimes one needs the simple and the quiet to think. May I come in?”
He owned the place, and he was asking me for permission. Unusually sweet for Oliver, but I needed some kindness right now. Desperately.
“Depends. Are you friend or foe?”
“I hope friend.”
I couldn’t remember the last time I had seen Oliver show an emotion other than disdain or disinterest or mild amusement, typically at someone else’s expense. Especially toward me. “Since when?”
“Fair question. I believe we may have gotten off on the wrong foot.”
“For thirteen years? I think that would be an understatement.”
He dipped his hands into his pockets. “The Hamilton men aren’t known for their grace with the fairer sex.”
“Maybe you and your father, but I’m pretty sure Seth got the bulk of your share.”
“Probably true.”
Yet Oliver was the one who’d found me, not his brother. Did Seth even notice I’d been missing? And now I was just being melodramatic. Seth had been texting me a few times a day, every day.
I’d told him I needed a little thinking time.
I slid my hand over my belly self-consciously and sat forward, hunching my shoulders. I was already going into protective mode for a child who might not even exist. Along with heavily protecting myself.
Then again, perhaps Seth was waiting outside, planning a sneak attack.
“Is Seth with you?” I asked.
“No.”
I breathed out a sigh of relief. “Good.”
“Is there a reason you wouldn’t want to see my brother?”
“No.” I shoved my keys and pepper spray back into my bag. “Yes.” I stood and crossed to the windows of the screened-in porch, hoping for a breeze off the water. It had helped earlier, but my mom wasn’t talking now.
The vast, mirror-like lake shone and in the distance.
Now I could see the white string lights around the gazebo, winding down the pier.
Night was creeping over the town and the sun was sinking behind the trees with fantastic red and pink slashes across the sky.
Music and laughter traveled with the occasional snatches of breeze on the heavy night.
The pier and park was all tricked out already for the reunion.
It was time to celebrate the ten years of our lives we’d put behind us.
Ten years I’d spent not moving forward.
I swallowed hard. “I don’t know. That would be why I’m here. I don’t know anything.”
“Not surprising since my brother is the king of cowards.”
“What?” I turned back to Oliver. “No, he’s not. He—”
“No, that’s exactly what he is. Both of you are. There’s a reason no one ever fit either of you over the years. I may not want to tie myself to one woman, but Seth has been a family man since the moment that little girl was put into his arms. I just put the wrong woman in his path.”
I flinched. “What does that mean?”
Oliver tugged at his tie again until it snapped out of his collar. He jammed it into his pocket before shrugging out of his suit coat. “It’s too blasted hot.”
I lifted a brow. “I thought you were impervious.”
“Yeah, well, don’t look at the line of sweat down the middle of my back. I’m not a fucking machine, no matter what you people think.”
“I…” I didn’t even know what to say to that, actually. Oliver had always been mostly cool and aloof around me. Had I started it? Or had he?
He blew out a breath. “This wasn’t where I wanted to go with this. I’m here to save my meathead brother from making a mistake.”
“Meathead?” I blinked. First, he was de-suiting and now he was plain-speaking.
I squinted at him to make sure he wasn’t Seth playing a joke on me, but the edges of his tattoo demonstrated clearly which twin was which.
They were both covered in ink, which was interesting considering Oliver’s penchant for suits.
But their ink was as opposite as their personalities.
Seth’s was more dark and heavy, while Oliver’s contained more streaks of color.