Chapter 3
Three
Baylor
Stepping into my childhood home feels different this time.
I visited as often as I could, but coming home has never felt like this.
Usually, there’s a clock ticking somewhere in the back of my mind, counting down the days until I have to pack my bags and trade gravel roads for subway platforms again.
Today, there’s no clock.
The screen door creaks shut behind me, that familiar, stubborn hinge announcing my return like it always has. I can almost close my eyes and hear my parents yelling at us girls that we are either in or out, as the sound of that creak followed us in whichever direction we were heading.
I miss my parents with an ache that never lessens. I ran when we lost them. I thought I needed something bigger, something more, but being here, knowing I don’t have to pack up and leave, it hits different. I’d forgotten how the feeling of home could wrap around you like a hug.
“Baylor,” my oldest sister, Ellison, says, pulling me out of my thoughts. “Come sit.” She pats the couch cushion next to her.
I do as she asks and step further into the room, sitting next to her. She reaches over and grabs my hand. She doesn’t say anything as Copeland comes into the room, carrying more bags, with our sisters right behind him.
“Ells, this baby is already spoiled rotten,” Courtlynn says, grinning.
Copeland comes over and bends to kiss Ellison. “You need anything?” he asks her.
“I’m good. Thank you.”
He kisses her again before standing to his full height. “I’m going to go grab a beer with the guys.” He steals another kiss, and my heart expands for my big sister. Copeland was always the love of her life, and I couldn’t be happier that they got their second chance.
Once Copeland leaves, Courtlynn and Leighton snuggle up on the loveseat, and I love that I get this time with them. Then I remember. I’m not just visiting. I’m not passing through. I no longer have to count down the hours I have left with them before leaving for New York.
I’m back for good.
Or at least until I can figure out my next move.
“So, home for good, huh?” Courtlynn, my youngest sister, asks. Courtlynn is the most like me, outspoken and a little wild, but I guess being the baby of the family will do that to you. She’s one to talk about being spoiled. Then again, we all were spoiled and loved beyond measure.
I sigh. “Yeah, I mean, at least until I decide what my next steps are.” I have no direction, no plan, and that should freak me out, but when I’m here, in the house I grew up in, surrounded by my sisters, it’s not as scary as I would have thought.
“Want to talk about it?” Ellison asks.
“What she meant to say was spill the details, Bay,” Courtlynn says.
“Give her time,” Leighton speaks up. She’s the quietest of the four of us.
“It’s fine, Lei,” I tell her. Leighton is next in line after me—Moran girl number three, as the locals sometimes refer to us. “I want to tell you. I can’t just show up without explanation.”
“Yes, you can,” Ellison says, squeezing my hand. “This is your home. It will always be your home.”
Home.
Taking a deep breath, I dive into the story.
“Friday, when I got home from work,” I start, then detail every moment up until I rolled into town yesterday to crash with my best friend for the night.
“It was always the plan to come a day early and stay with Sophia, but not that I would have my entire life crammed into the rental, as well,” I tell them.
“That rat bastard,” Courtlynn seethes. “Did he really think that you’d just stick around after he did that without discussing it with you?”
“I mean, I know it’s his choice,” Leighton adds. “But the two of you had talked about kids and having a family. He changed the rules without notice. What a jerk.”
“I’m sorry,” Ellison says softly, squeezing my hand gently.
“You have nothing to apologize for. It’s on me.
Things had been off with us for a while.
I chalked it up to his working too much, but somewhere along the way, we drifted apart.
” I wipe the lone tear that breaks free.
“I’m not even that upset about it. Well, I’m mad at myself for staying as long as I did.
I hate that it took this for me to open my eyes and see that we’d changed.
Well, he had changed. He’s not the man I fell for. ”
“You don’t seem heartbroken,” Leighton comments. As the quiet observer of the four of us, it doesn’t surprise me that she’s the one to bring that up.
“I’m not. I’m pissed at myself and, yeah, at him for changing the rules and not discussing it with me, but I know that the outcome would have been the same.
I want a family. He doesn’t, but he hid that from me, and how long would that have gone on?
I saw the signs that he was pulling away, months and months ago, but I stayed.
What does that say about me?” I ask them, not really expecting an answer.
“It means your heart is big, Bay,” Leighton replies. “It means that you fight for what you want, and it’s not a bad thing that you trusted him.”
“Don’t let his choices keep you from finding your forever love,” Ellison adds.
“She’s all loved up and happy these days.” Courtlynn grins. “Don’t be surprised if our dear brother-in-law knocks her up again right away with the way those two go at it.” She chuckles.
“Court!” Ellison scolds, her face bright red, but her body shakes with her laughter.
“Easy… my niece is in there,” I tease, placing my hand on her belly.
“She’s not wrong,” Leighton says with a shrug.
“How’s that house coming along?” I rib Ellison.
“Apparently not fast enough.” She laughs. “We’ll try to keep it down,” she says, rubbing her baby bump.
“We’ve got good earplugs.” Courtlynn smirks. “Bay, I’ll loan you a pair.”
“S-Stop it.” Ellison sputters with laughter, and we all join in.
“I’ve missed all of you. So much,” I tell them once our laughter has died down.
“So, since you’re back, that means you’re taking over the books, right?” Ellison asks.
“Say yes,” Leighton begs. “Court and I were going to insist on doing them while she’s on maternity leave, but since our numbers girl is here…” She grins widely.
“Of course, I will,” I answer immediately. I wish I could explain this sudden feeling of rightness that washes over me.
This is my home.
This is where I’m meant to be.
It’s not just the house or the creaky screen door that still announces the comings and goings, or the faint smell of lemon cleaner our mom loved that clings to the walls like it always has. It’s not even just my sisters—though God knows they’re the loudest, brightest part of it.
It’s me.
Or maybe it’s the version of me I lost somewhere between late nights in New York and trying to become someone who fit into a life that never quite fit me back.
I thought that moving out of this small town of Magnolia Ridge was what I wanted.
It’s barely been twenty-four hours of upending my life for me to realize that’s not the life I want. It never really was.
“Are you sure?” Ellison asks.
“I’m positive. How many times have you begged me to come home for this very reason? And that’s before Copeland knocked you up.” I wink at her. “Besides, I also happen to be unemployed.”
Unemployed. The word should sting more than it does.
Two weeks ago, it would have. Two weeks ago, I was still in our apartment, still eating dinner alone, reading messages of don’t wait up and I’ll be a partner soon.
Little did I know that my world would be flipped upside down, and I’d land back in the same place I was so ready to run away from.
“Not anymore,” Courtlynn chirps, and we all laugh.
I should miss Todd, but I don’t. I was sure he would call, but I have not heard from him.
Not that I care, it’s better this way. It proves I made the right choice for me.
I can’t pinpoint when exactly our relationship became a business deal.
I don’t know when I became just a roommate to my live-in boyfriend, but it happened, and that’s not the life I want.
I want what Ellison and Copeland have. Seeing my sister get her second chance with the love of her life and starting a family has cemented that feeling even more.
I want a man in my life who puts me first, who looks at me as if I’m his entire world.
I don’t know if I’ll find him here in Magnolia Ridge, but at some point, I hope to find that one person who was made just for me.
Eight years in New York, and somehow the thing that finally broke me wasn’t the city—it was realizing I had built everything there around someone who didn’t choose me back.
“You okay?” Ellison asks, her tone soft, pulling me out of my thoughts.
I blink. “Yeah. I’m okay.” And it’s the truth. That’s the strangest part. When I graduated from college, I fled this small town I grew up in like my ass was on fire and swore there was more for me than what this little town could give.
Now, here I am, back in the house I grew up in, and there is no pain, no sadness, no feelings of failure. Instead, there are smiles and the laughter I share with my sisters. I’ve missed them so much—a feeling that’s not new, but one I buried deep, telling myself that New York was my dream.
“Dreams change, Bay,” Leighton says, as if she can read my mind.
I smile at her. “I know. I just need to decide what mine looks like now.”
“Whatever it is, I hope it’s here,” Courtlynn tells me. “We’ve missed you, Bay. I’m glad you’re home.”
My heart squeezes in my chest. Not painfully. It’s more of a longing. “I’ve missed you all, too,” I admit, my voice cracking.
“So,” Ellison says, clapping her hands together, shifting the mood. “We’ll start you tomorrow. We’re a mess, just so you know. Total disaster. It’s embarrassing, honestly.”
“I doubt that,” I say.
“No, like, receipts-in-a-shoebox level of embarrassing,” she continues.
“Color-coded chaos,” Courtlynn adds.
I grin. “Wow. You really held it together without me.”