Chapter 38
Honey
“What if a serial killer moves into your apartment?” Ruby asked, rolling paint up the wall.
“I’m sure you could handle them,” Honey said with a smile, though her chest pinched a little. The room echoed with their voices now that the furniture was gone and had been carefully loaded into the back of Ethan’s truck.
While Ethan was getting everything settled back at the orchard, she and Ruby had packed up the last of her things and boxed her city life into neat, labeled memories. Now they were painting the front room a soft, sun-soaked yellow.
Honey never thought she’d be the one moving out of the city.
She’d stayed as others left—grad school flings, neighbors turned nomads, jobs that dried up.
But she’d remained, clinging to rent control and routine.
She never imagined she’d be the one standing in a mostly-empty apartment with paint on her arms and goodbye in her chest.
“Maybe I’ll come with you,” Ruby said, dipping her roller back into the tray.
“You could,” Honey replied. “I’m sure there are plenty of messes to be cleaned up in Brim’s Hollow.”
Ruby wrinkled her nose, and a drop of yellow paint landed on the floor. “I don’t know. Starting over in a new town and all that.” She wiped the paint splotch away with the bottom of her sock.
“I think you’re stronger than you know,” Honey said, setting down her paintbrush and grabbing a towel.
“Hmm.” Ruby tilted her head.
She laughed. “It would suit you.”
Ruby gave a smile. “You think so?”
“Yes,” she said simply. “Brim’s Hollow has a way of welcoming people who need a fresh start.”
“Something to think about,” Ruby said.
Honey would miss her. She’d been her neighbor, her accidental confidant, and, somewhere along the way, her closest friend.
Letting go of this apartment meant closing a chapter she hadn’t even realized she was writing until it was almost done.
But it also meant trusting there were better ones ahead. Chapters with muddy boots at the door, a kitchen full of noise, and love that terrified her with how much it might give back.
A stampede of small feet thudded in the hallway. Honey’s lips curved before she even turned, and then the door burst open.
“Respect communal spaces!” Ruby mock-scolded, her voice lifting in a pitch-perfect imitation of Honey.
“I’ve amended my opinion,” Honey said primly. “Solely when it comes to children.”
“You’ve changed, Ms. Baxter.”
“I fear you may be right,” she replied, just before three little girls barreled into her, wrapping her legs in a tangle of hugs and giggles.
“Why are you painting an apartment you’re moving out of?” Melly asked.
“I always wanted to.”
There was something satisfying about leaving behind a mark. She wasn’t running away. She wasn’t just disappearing. She was heading somewhere she wanted to be, with someone who wanted her there.
“Should we paint a room at home?” Brooke asked hopefully, already eyeing the roller. “I think the living room would look cute in purple.”
“I think that’s a lovely idea.”
Ethan appeared in the doorway, an empty cardboard box tucked under one arm.
“Last call,” he said, scanning the room and then the girls. “Anything left?”
“Just this paint,” Ruby said, nudging her tray with her foot. “And half a dozen other colors Honey discarded because they weren’t ‘quite right.’”
“I got it,” Ethan said, stepping inside. His eyes met Honey’s, and for a moment, the noise around them blurred. Ruby muttered about a dozen trips to the hardware store, and the girls bickered over who got the roller next.
This was what she was leaving for. Standing in the flickering light of her nearly-empty apartment, Honey knew it was worth it.
“Let’s go home,” Ethan said softly.
She took one last look at the painted wall. A mark she’d left behind, and a future she was walking toward.
And then she followed Ethan out the door.
Home.