Chapter 45 Chasing Ghosts
Chasing Ghosts
One Year Later
Savannah Monroe wasn’t the same woman who had left Wrightsville Beach nearly a year ago.
She had tried to move on. Tried to convince herself that what she had with Chase was just a moment in time—a beautiful, fleeting thing that wasn’t meant to last.
But the problem was, Chase Montgomery wasn’t the kind of man you just forgot.
She had spent the last year pretending. Pretending she was okay. Pretending she was healing. Pretending that life had gone back to normal.
But it hadn’t.
Nothing had felt normal since the day she left.
Her favorite coffee shop? It didn’t taste the same. The city of Asheville? Too loud. Too suffocating. Her apartment? Too quiet. Too empty.
She had filled her days with work, trying to stay busy, trying to ignore the ache in her chest every time she saw a pickup truck that looked like his, every time she heard a song that reminded her of him, every time she saw the ocean in a movie and thought about what she had left behind.
And Chase?
She didn’t know.
Not really.
She had done everything in her power to avoid finding out. She didn’t check social media. She didn’t ask Mallory for updates. She didn’t call. Didn’t text. Didn’t give herself a single excuse to reach for him.
Because if she did?
She wasn’t sure she’d survive it.