Chapter 27
[Saint]
In the morning, hail hammers the area, and I panic that I won’t make it out of Hideaway Harbor.
I’ve run out of time.
With my car repaired, thoroughly inspected by Neve, I have the green light from her to exit Rusty’s Wrecks.
Handing over a hardy check that’s double what’s owed for use of the auto repair shop, I’m hoping it will help them keep the garage doors open and the lights on for another six months or until they can make a unified decision on what to do with Rusty’s Wrecks. Keep it or sell.
“You’re really going to leave her?” Neve questions, admonishing me like she’s the one scorned.
“I have to go,” I repeat like I’ve said to myself through a sleepless night and a barrage of texts from Da and Ma, and even Nick, who wondered what was up with me. I’d always been a rebel, but not a rebel from my duty.
As my brother finally found love with the single mom living next door to him two years ago, I’d hoped he’d understand. But I couldn’t talk to him yet. I knew what he’d say.
It’s your life, man.
With the hail over, I have a narrow window of time to slip from Hideaway Harbor before poor weather strikes again.
Neve gives me a scathing look that could skin a moose, but I drive away from Rusty’s, reminding myself I have obligations. Responsibilities. People who depend on me.
I rush to Lumi’s for a goodbye I don’t want to make.
I could have said everything this morning when she slipped from bed and prepared for work, but I couldn’t speak then.
One final time, I simply watched her dress, tie up her hair, and smile at me, still tucked in her bed.
That last kiss wasn’t enough, especially after last night’s sex fest, but enough was never going to happen with Lumi. I’d always want more.
The second I enter the post office, she glances up at me. She’s on the customer side of the counter, straightening envelopes in a display. Her smile is bright until she reads my face. Sees the truth in my eyes.
+ + +
LUMI
“You’re really going, aren’t you?”
As I stand frozen in place and cold to the bone, with a handful of bubble-wrap envelopes, I don’t know why I say it. Why I question it. I’ve known since the moment he arrived in Hideaway Harbor, he’d be leaving. He’d been adamant in silent ways, over and over again, that he’d be going.
The excitement for every new car part that arrived. The attention to detail to restore his green machine, as he called his precious vehicle.
I’d known, and yet I hadn’t wanted to accept the truth.
He’d really leave me.
Just like Danny’s father came and went.
Flatlanders never stayed.
And I always did.
“Lumi.” He steps closer to me, but I shake my head and shove the packing envelopes back into the display. Let them be crooked. The world isn’t straight anyway.
When I turn back for Saint, I hold up a hand. “Don’t.”
“Don’t say goodbye?” His silver brows are tight. Coal-colored eyes stricken.
“Not goodbye,” I whisper. Never say goodbye. I swallow the silent plea. The desire to beg when I’m not like this. I don’t ask. I don’t demand.
Despite my protest, Saint closes the distance between us and tugs me to him, crashing his mouth against mine. Claiming me. Taking from me. The kiss is aggressive and urgent. Hard even.
Like he wants to imprint it on me.
Stamp it on my heart and send me off without a return address.
As quickly as he kisses me, he pulls back, releasing me, and I nearly fall over from the rush of it all. The finality of it.
“Safe travels,” I choke around the lump of coal in my throat and the sack of emptiness in my belly.
Saint doesn’t respond. His booted feet scrape the tiles as he exits the post office in a rush.
I watch him drive off, leaving the space in front of the post office vacant, like he was never here.