2.
Chapter two
Kameron
“Cassidy!” I called out from the kitchen, putting the breakfast sandwich I’d made on a plate. I’d hoped the smell of eggs, cheese, and bacon would lure her out, but it'd worked about as well as everything else I'd tried over the past few days.
My daughter didn’t fully understand my decision to move us to Briar Hill.
And considering how terrible our last few years were, I couldn’t blame her.
Watching her Mom fade away from cancer was hard enough, but the friend group she'd been a part of actively made fun of her for not immediately getting over it.
And on top of it all, we'd moved away from the only home she'd ever known? The entire world wasn’t fair, especially for a ten-year-old.
I was pretty sure if anyone heard I had money problems, they'd laugh in my face. I knew RaineFall had been a worldwide experience; it should've set me up for life. However, Julia’s cancer treatment was experimental, and our insurance didn’t want to touch it.
All of her hospital stays, surgeries, medication, and treatment were out of pocket — millions of dollars I was lucky enough to have that I used to try to save my wife’s life — even if it did drain my bank account in the process.
The few royalties that still came in couldn’t keep up with the mortgage payments on the giant house anymore, and it'd felt too empty without Julia there anyway.
It'd been easier to sell it, invest the money, and live on that while we moved to the one place we had a fully paid-off house: the one I'd grown up in.
The cost of living in Briar Hill was much cheaper, even though I was more recognizable here than I liked.
However, I was the least popular member of RaineFall, which was both a blessing and a curse.
I'd faded into obscurity after the band broke up, and the money slowed down.
But I'd always been less of a spectacle than my brothers.
Would there be questions from the different residents who still lived here? Probably. But I'd take those over a photographer stalking me any day.
“Cassidy!” I called, opening the door to her bedroom that once upon a time, Jack and I'd shared. “Come on. Out of bed. Time for school.”
“I’m not going!” she shouted into her pillow, “This town is stupid! This school is stupid!”
“Come on, Cass,” I sighed, sitting on the edge of her bed. “You already missed the first two days of school. You can’t keep missing it forever.”
“Watch. Me.” Cassidy snapped, Julia’s stubbornness coming out in every one of our daughter’s words. I used to think it was adorable. Now it gave me nothing but a headache.
I had one ace up my sleeve, and I'd hoped not to use it so quickly, but when she wasn’t listening to me, there was one person who could get through to her: Jack.
I should've been shocked my twin had that effect on my daughter; she'd been a toddler when the band broke up and barely remembered him. But Julia’s passing encouraged both my brothers to reach out after years of silence, and Cassidy had latched onto her uncle like Velcro. I didn’t want to pull the “Cassidy’s favorite uncle” card too often, not when I was afraid it would only end in eventual disappointment.
I loved my twin, I really did. But in my gut, I knew it was only a matter of time before Jack accidentally hurt Cassidy the same way he accidentally hurt me time after time.
However, this was an emergency, and as long as he wasn’t too drunk to function, desperate times called for desperate measures.
Jack
Yeah.
Kameron
Are you sober?
Jack
Rude.
But mostly.
Kameron
Can you convince Cassidy to get out of bed and go to school?
She missed the first two days and she has to go.
Jack
You moved back to BH. I’m team Cass here.
I rolled my eyes, and I should've known this plan was terrible — Jack hated Briar Hill with every fiber of his being. He'd tried to pay off my mortgage to keep me from moving back, which I immediately refused. The last thing I wanted from my brothers was their money. I didn’t want to be in Jack’s debt for the rest of my life, not when he was the kind of person to hold it over my head.
I was about to try and figure out a Plan B when my phone rang.
“Where’s my favorite niece?” Jack’s voice rang out, and almost immediately, Cassidy ran out of her room, stole my phone, and began to explain to her uncle in great detail about how unfair I was. Which also ended her hunger strike as she devoured the sandwich. It was a win. I guess.
A win that reminded me of all the ways I was failing her. I'd always anticipated her puberty years would be something Julia and I would tackle together. Instead, Cassidy had raging hormones and was grieving her mom in a nightmarish combination I wished she could avoid.
Hearing Jack tell her something along the lines of how “he knew I was lame, but she had to listen to me anyway,” was just another reminder of how I was failing to do the “single dad” thing well.
Nobody talked about how hard it was to pick up the pieces of a life you’d shared with someone. Or how hard it was to patch up the missing pieces. Julia had been gone for a year and a half, and while I'd accepted it, it didn’t make her absence hurt any less.
I let myself have a few seconds, like my therapist recommended.
I let myself feel it instead of letting my grief bottle up.
I grounded myself and then focused again on Cassidy.
Getting her clothed and in the car was still a fight, but Jack’s words were enough to at least make her willing to go to school.
As I drove her, a strange sense of déjà vu washed over me. Briar Hill was exactly how I remembered it. From the small businesses, landmarks, and even the elementary school I dropped Cassidy off at looked the same. The more I saw, the more Briar Hill felt like I'd come home.
Back when we'd first started the band, the three of us had assumed the endless money, the big house, and the adoring fans would feel like home. For Jack and Noah, I was pretty sure it had. However, for me? It always felt like I was missing something. Something I hadn’t felt until we'd driven into town.
I watched as Cassidy walked into the school, her teacher, Ms. Phillips, giving me a bright smile and a wave as she walked her in.
We met briefly at Meet-the-Teacher Night, the only time I'd managed to get Cassidy on the school grounds, before she started her tantrum.
I was glad I felt like she was in good hands, and I hoped it at least meant we were turning a corner.
One where Briar Hill might eventually feel like home to my daughter as much as it did to me.
I finally had free rein to explore the town center, which I’d wanted to do since we'd arrived. I hadn’t had a chance to go grocery shopping or see what had changed.
The old video rental store had been replaced with the “Bent Out Of Shape” Yoga Studio, a few restaurants had been replaced, and the Homebrewed Coffee Shop replaced the Sweet Palace candy store I'd been excited to introduce to Cassidy.
But the places I remembered most? Those were still exactly how they looked in my memories.
There was the One Page Bookstore where Nalini and I hung out almost every day after school.
The Apothecary — a drugstore and soda fountain where we'd get ice cream every Friday. The small Mom & Pop grocery store where we'd load up on junk food and hide it under her bed. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror: curly brown hair, hazel eyes, the beard I’d grown and mostly maintained after Julia’s funeral.
But I couldn’t help but feel like someone was missing from the reflection — the person I’d had all of my Briar Hill adventures with growing up: Nalini.
I missed her, even though I had no right to. As disappointing as it was, Nalini would've moved on from the town — her dreams were always bigger than Briar Hill. She was out there somewhere with the giant book deal she'd planned, under some elusive pen name I'd never been able to figure out.
Nalini didn’t have any social media, and any Google searches I tried gave me the same old articles from when RaineFall first started. Even though she had every right to be mad at me, I still wanted to read her books and support her, even if it was without her knowing.
I hadn’t anticipated how lonely Briar Hill would feel without her.
All of my best memories included her, and even though I felt like I'd come home, there was a warmth missing that could only come from her. I tried not to notice the side-eyes and glares from the people I recognized. I hadn’t expected a giant welcome back, but there was a surprising number of people who clearly didn’t want me here.
I decided to ignore it, figuring it'd be easier to get my footing back in town and let everyone realize I wasn’t trying to disrupt their lives.
There were groceries to buy, library cards to get, and multiple websites to check for extracurriculars Cassidy might like.
Her last friend group had been a bunch of mini-influencer mean girls, and I hoped the Briar Hill kids were normal.
And less likely to bully Cassidy whenever the adults left the room.
I knew she was lonely, even if she didn’t want to admit it herself, and a group of friends with similar interests seemed like a good way to help her adjust to her new home.
I’d narrowed my list down to a few extracurriculars to suggest to her as I made my way back to the school, turning into the parking lot.
Only to discover I was nowhere near the parent pickup line.
I looked around the parking lot, at the street, and realized I was in the teacher’s lot between the elementary and high schools.
Logically, I knew there was a reason I wasn’t supposed to park here, but I was sure nobody'd actually care if it was a one-time thing.
I’d figure out the right parking lot tomorrow.
A plan I was forced to commit to because as soon as I put my car in park, teenagers appeared all around the vehicle, and there was no way I’d be able to get out.
I knew the high school got out before the elementary school, which allowed the teenagers and teachers there to leave before everyone started on the elementary side.
I walked over, waving apologetically at the parents glaring at me from the pickup line.
The mistake clearly wasn’t doing any favors to my weirdly terrible reputation.
I kept an eye out for Cassidy as the kids started streaming out of the school, only to be met with a storm cloud the moment my daughter appeared.
Tear streaks were barely visible down the sides of her face as she clutched her backpack for dear life.
I'd hoped she’d have a good day once she finally came — it seemed like I was wrong.
“Um, this way,” I said, motioning to the teacher’s parking lot. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“I want to go home,” Cassidy growled at me, clearly meaning our old house. The one that was already sold, and the new owners moved in.
“I know Briar Hill doesn’t feel like home yet, Cass,” I said, walking with her towards our car, “but it will someday. It’s a fresh start for both of us.”
I'd meant the words, but they lost meaning the moment I finished saying them, as liquid splashed all over my face.
Cold… coffee? Ice cubes fell out of my curls, and I wiped my eyes, a sticky chill layered on my face.
I was about to yell when I blinked and saw my attacker.
Hair in a messy bun that barely contained her thick black hair.
Golden brown eyes acting like knives cutting my very soul.
The same face that'd haunted all of my memories as I'd walked through town today.
“Nalini?”