Book 3 Sneakpeak
HADEN
Tick. Tick. Tick.
The sound of the clock rang in my ears as the woman across from me drones on about my mental state. I’m half-listening, half-taking in the boring ass office we sit in. I’ve been coming here for the past twenty years, and it’s still as simple as it was when I was a kid.
Muted tones. One couch, a desk, and one chair.
There’s a simple lamp in the corner, but it’s borderline useless with the natural light fluttering in from the tall, floor-to-ceiling window overlooking main street.
“Something here is still haunting you, Haden,” Lila says, drawing my attention back to the topic at hand.
“I don’t think it was a good idea to come back. It hasn’t helped.”
Her tone is much harsher than it was when we first sat down.
So unlike the soft, soothing lithe she typically uses.
But she’s been my therapist for years. And not only that—she and my mom used to be good friends.
She’s known me since I was in diapers. That might be why her opinion means so much to me, but also irritates the complete and utter hell out of me.
“What are you suggesting?” I manage to ask, leaning back in my seat.
“Go back to Clover-Hills,” she responds, posing the statement with a shrug of her shoulders. “See some of your friends. See Viv-”
I interrupt her with a grunt and shake my head.
“She doesn’t want to see me.” It’s true.
I’ve been gone for two years. Even then, that name hits a spot inside my chest—one I’ve done everything in my power to bury deep, deep, down.
She probably hates me at this point, and I can’t blame her.
I’m not even sure what I’d go back too—if there’s even a place there for me anymore.
While I was living there, Lila and I would meet virtually.
It worked just fine, but that isn’t what matters.
I haven’t spoken to a single soul from Clover-Hills in two years.
I left Wyatt and Wesley a note on Christmas, and changed my phone number the second I got back home.
If anyone even tried to reach me, it would have been futile.
Beaumont Lake is my hometown and the last place on earth I ever imagined returning to. But I had to. I needed to step away. I wasn’t the kind of man who deserved the life he was living—and I was too close to dragging everyone else there down with me.
The town I grew up in isn’t huge by any means, but is probably considered a luxury in comparison to Clover-Hills.
Rather than miles and miles of woods, it’s surrounded by water.
The lake is a prized possession in this town.
It’s wine country, but in-between the wineries and waterfront mansions, there are picture perfect ranches.
That also means it’s crawling with a never-ending supply of wealthy douche bags.
When I got back from deployment, Lila thought it’d be best if I had a change of scenery—that somehow, living in a new town would make me forget my cluster-fuck of a family and the mistakes that I made overseas.
That somehow, it would change how those memories keep me up at night.
But they still do. And they probably always will.
I don’t deserve peace, not when I was the reason so many others live without it.