Chapter 3
Mallory
Kelly’s apartment looked just like I imagined it would. Colorful and vibrant, full of life.
Rose was already there when I arrived, sitting cross-legged on Kelly’s living room floor, labeling boxes in her loopy handwriting. The apartment was cheerful chaos, stacks of books and framed prints leaning against every wall.
“She lives!” Rose announced, throwing her arms up when she saw me.
Kelly appeared from the bedroom doorway with her hair in a messy bun and a smudge on her cheek, grinning so wide it made my chest ache.
I’d missed both of them so much.
“Get in here. I have so much stuff to pack. This is going to take all day,” Kelly grinned as she held her arms open for a hug.
She wasn’t wrong. The bedroom was a disaster of open drawers and half-filled boxes. There were clothes everywhere.
Kelly had moved in with Brady, a fact that made my heart warm.
She’d crushed on him for about as long as I’d been crushing on Zane.
If those two could find their way to each other, there was something to be said for staying put long enough to let life catch up with you.
I pushed that thought aside before it could take root and grabbed a stack of sweaters to fold.
The difference between Kelly and me was that her crush had left the Ozarks while she’d stayed behind. And I hadn’t stuck around long enough to find out if Zane ever planned to ask me out.
We all caught up on each other’s lives while we worked through the morning. The three of us fell back into the easy rhythm of old friendship the way you fall back into a comfortable chair… without even having to try.
Rose made terrible jokes while Kelly kept second-guessing which things should go to Brady’s and which should head off for donation.
I sorted and folded and wondered how I’d walked away all these years.
I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed this town and everyone in it until I was sitting in the middle of Kelly’s mess, creating a keep-and-go pile for her extensive tank top collection.
Kelly emerged from the closet with a bulging black garbage bag. “I almost forgot. This is yours.”
I looked up from the pile in front of me. “Mine?”
“You gave me these clothes when you moved away, but they didn’t quite fit.” She dropped the bag on the bed with a thump. “Do you want any of them back before I donate them?”
Rose abandoned her tape gun immediately and came to dig through the bag with both hands like it was a treasure chest.
She pulled things out one by one and showed them off to us. A yellow sundress I’d worn for an entire summer the year I turned twenty. A flannel so worn it had gone nearly translucent at the elbows. A denim jacket with a broken zipper I’d fully intended to fix and never did.
Each piece pulled up a memory.
Then Rose pulled out a pair of jeans and held them up by the belt loops, and I felt a jolt of pure recognition.
“For real? I forgot all about these.” I reached out and took them from her, running my finger along the frayed hem. They were dark-wash denim in a low-rise fit with hearts sewn on the back pockets.
They were soft from a thousand washes. I’d loved those jeans more than anything.
And I’d gotten rid of them along with a lot of other clothes when I decided I needed to try on life in a grown-up style instead of my old, ratty mish-mash clothing collection.
Rose was already grinning. “Try them on.”
“Rose.”
“Try them on right now.”
“They’re twelve years old! And I think they were out of fashion even when they were new.”
“Low-rise is coming back.” She reached back into the bag and pulled out a thin white t-shirt, shaking it out so I could read the faded iron-on print across the chest. Girls Are Like Country Roads. The Best Ones Have Curves. “Wear this with it.”
I’d forgotten all about that shirt.
This was the outfit I’d worn to the diner all the time, trying to catch Zane’s eye.
Kelly burst out laughing from across the room when she saw the shirt.
“That was your Snatch-A-Zane look. You never know. It could still work!”
“They probably won’t even fit,” I muttered.
But that didn’t stop me from stripping down and shimmying into the jeans. After I pulled the shirt over my head, I asked, “How do I look?”
Both my friends sat there with the happiest looks on their faces.
Then Kelly said, “You look like Mallory now. Not a corporate drone. I love it!”
“Hey, I do not dress like a corporate drone.”
But maybe they were right. I’d shown up today in what I’d considered my weekend wear when I lived in Chicago. And it had been ten times dressier than what Kelly and Rose were wearing.
Then I turned to look at myself, and a piece of my heart melted on the spot. I did look like me.
The denim sat exactly where it always had, hugging the full curve of my hips and the thickness of my thighs in a way that had always made me feel like I was built exactly right for them.
My ass looked fantastic. That part hadn’t changed.
And my belly still hung over the top, just like it had all those years ago, but that was part of life, right?
I stood there for a moment longer than I needed to, studying my own reflection.
These clothes were just a memory of who I used to be. Even if they fit, this wasn’t me. Not anymore.
Kelly blurted out, “That is your outfit for the Bear Den tonight.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Mallory.”
“Kelly, I am thirty-three years old.”
“And you look incredible.” She crossed her arms, satisfied with herself.
“I’m not wearing this out.” I smoothed the front of the shirt and shook my head.
Then I pushed my boobs out. I did look pretty damn cute. “Does Zane ever go to the Bear Den?”
Rose grinned. “No. That man works himself to death. You won’t catch him relaxing at a bar. Have you seen him yet?”
They both knew about my crush. But that was old news.
“Yeah,” I cleared my throat. “As a matter of fact, I have.”
Kelly leaned forward on her bed, all thoughts of packing her apartment gone for the moment. “You did? Where?”
“Oh, I was on Main Street and ran into him. Then he, uh, helped me fix a plumbing issue at my parents’ house.”
Rose snickered. “Six months until wedding bells.”
Kelly pondered it for a moment. “They’re both stubborn as mules. I say within a year.”
I laughed and changed back into my regular clothes. “If that man wanted to date me, he had plenty of time to make that happen. Sometimes I don’t know what makes him tick.”
I glanced at Rose.
She’d wanted out of Red Oak Mountain just as badly as I had when we were younger, maybe more so. She’d had big ideas and restless energy, and just like me, her plans had stretched far beyond these hills.
And now here she was, back in town, and looking more settled than I’d ever seen her.
“Do you ever regret moving back here for Nash?” I asked. They’d been best friends for years before getting together.
Rose’s whole face transformed, going soft and gushy on me. “I don’t regret a thing.”
“But doesn’t Red Oak Mountain feel too small for you now that you’ve seen the world?”
That was my biggest fear. This town felt nostalgic to me right now, and for the first time in my life I felt a tiny desire to stay. But I didn’t know how much of that was me reeling from the divorce and layoff. I was pretty convinced I wasn’t thinking clearly these days.
Rose peered at me with wisdom beyond her years. “I just needed some time to grow up. Nash and I got together at exactly the right time in our lives. And Red Oak Mountain has everything I want. My friends are here. And my family. And Nash.”
She seemed so content now, all the restless angst that she used to carry with her gone.
“Do you think you would stay for Zane?”
I thought about what life would look like, and on this sunshiny day, it seemed like a damn fine life.
“If he wanted me, yeah. But I don’t see it happening between us.”
Then I added, “You know, instead of asking me on a date, he’s coming over to help fix my parents’ fence. That doesn’t sound like a man who’s looking for romance.”
Kelly just chuckled while she folded the jeans and t-shirt, placing them on top of my purse. “Some men move slower than others. You should wear this outfit without a bra when you fix that fence. He might just fall right on top of you. Sometimes you have to make the romance happen yourself.”
I shook my head, laughing as I reached back into the bag for the next item.
The afternoon light shifted through Kelly’s windows, and I felt, just for a moment, completely and unexpectedly at home.