CHAPTER 1
S o l a c e
Eight Years Later
Bellhaven still had the same ugly welcome sign. The Uber slowed as we passed it, mostly because the speed limit dropped from fifty-five to thirty-five without much warning. Seeing the damn thing again after all these years did something strange to my stomach.
The farther I got into town, the more familiar everything became. Bellhaven Medical Group came first, still sitting in the same little building where my mother used to take me whenever I was sick enough to miss school.
A few moments later, the Uber passed Bellhaven K-12 School, where the football field stretched behind the building and a huge BELLHAVEN BEARS banner hung along the fence.
The Bellhaven Community Park was just beyond it, and even with the temperature dropping, kids were on the basketball court while parents sat near the playground.
The “FALL FESTIVAL COMING SOON” sign had already been put up near the entrance.
Once the Uber reached downtown, Bellhaven really started looking like home.
The six-block stretch of Main Street was covered in fall decorations, with orange and gold leaves wrapped around the light poles and festival banners hanging overhead.
City Council Square looked better than I remembered, and the gazebo had mums and pumpkins arranged around it like somebody on the council had gotten serious about making the town look good.
The post office was still beside the sheriff’s office, and Greene’s Cheesesteaks & Wings had enough people going in and out that I knew the food was still worth waiting for.
A little farther down, Bellhaven Outlet Mall was still hanging on. It had taken over a strip that used to sit half-empty when I was younger.
Some things looked better, some looked older, and some had changed completely. Then I saw my mama’s diner, and my stomach tightened all over again.
Loretta’s Diner had been sitting on Main Street for longer than I had been alive.
My mother inherited it from my great-grandmother who she was named after, and I had practically grown up there.
I did homework in the back booth and spent Saturdays helping wherever she needed me.
She had warned me the place needed work, but I hadn’t realized how much until I saw it again.
I asked the driver to go around the block one more time because I needed another minute before my mother saw me and started asking questions I wasn’t ready to answer. We had barely passed the diner again when my phone rang in my hand.
I pushed the answer button and brought the phone to my ear. “Hello?”
“Where are you?”
“Hello to you too, Mama.”
“I said, where are you?”
“I just passed the coffee shop,” I lied, opening the camera on my phone to check my lashes and lipstick one last time.
“Oh, you’re here!”
“I told you I would be here around two. It’s only two-fifty.”
“Yes, but that was six hours ago when we last spoke, Solace Nichole,” my mother huffed. “Anything could change.”
I glanced at the time on my phone. “I had a layover.”
“Mhm.”
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing.” I knew my mother well enough to know when nothing meant something, but I wasn’t taking the bait. “I can’t wait to see you. These fools in here tearing up my diner.”
The Uber turned back onto Main Street, and the diner came into view again as I laughed. “Isn’t tearing things up the point of renovation?”
“Not the things I ain’t tell ‘em to tear up.”
“Then tell your contractor.”
“I did, and he told me to stop coming behind the plastic because I’m in the way.”
I smiled despite myself. “Sounds like you hired the right person.”
“Don’t start. Just get here.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And Sol?”
“Yes, Mama?”
“I’m happy you’re home.”
The smile disappeared before I could stop it, and the words came easier than I expected. “Me too.” She hung up just as the Uber stopped rolling, and I sat there for a second longer than I should have, letting the words settle.
I looked down at my left hand in my lap and noticed the pale indentation around my ring finger had almost disappeared.
I hadn’t worn my engagement ring in three weeks, but sometimes I still reached for it without thinking.
I would rub my thumb against the base of my finger, expecting to feel the diamond and instead getting smooth skin.
The first few times had made me cry, but lately, it mostly irritated me.
I wasn’t supposed to be coming back into Bellhaven in the back of an Uber with two suitcases in the trunk.
I was supposed to be finalizing seating charts, arguing with vendors, and pretending I gave a damn whether the napkins at my wedding were called champagne or ivory.
I should’ve been counting down the days.
Instead, I had called off my engagement, taken two weeks of PTO, and packed enough clothes for somebody who had absolutely no idea how long she really planned to hide at her mother’s house.
Now I was back in the one place I had spent most of my adult life avoiding.
Yep, life had jokes. And mine had a way of landing right where it hurt, which made it harder to pretend I was fine.
When the Uber finally stopped in front of the diner, I grabbed my purse from the seat beside me and stepped out. The crisp autumn air hit me immediately. “Shit.”
Bellhaven always felt a few degrees colder than it should’ve around this time of year. It was probably because there wasn’t a skyscraper around for miles to block the wind. I shrugged into my peacoat, grabbed my suitcases from the trunk, and headed for my mother’s diner.
Two men carried sheets of drywall through the open door while another stood on a ladder near the awning.
A black pickup truck was parked along the curb with a trailer attached behind it.
Just as I reached the door, a horn beeped a few times.
I jumped and looked toward an old blue sedan slowing beside me.
The driver’s window rolled down. “Solace?”
I stared at the woman behind the wheel, and it took me all of three seconds to realize who it was. “Mrs. Turner?”
“I knew that was you!” Of course she did. Mrs. Turner had been my seventh-grade English teacher and, apparently, hadn’t aged a day. “When did you get back?”
“About 10 minutes ago.”
“I heard you was comin’.”
I furrowed my brows. “You… you heard I was coming?”
“Yep. Miss Loretta said you might be home for the festival.” I hadn’t even told my mother I was coming until the day before yesterday. Mrs. Turner smiled. “You look beautiful, honey.”
“Thank you. Nice seeing you.”
“You stayin’ awhile?”
There it was. “I’ll be around for a little bit.”
“Well, good. Miss Loretta will be happy. You tell her I can’t wait until those sweet potato muffins are back.”
“I will.”
“And don’t be a stranger.”
“I won’t.” She drove away, and I closed my eyes as it hit me that eight fucking years had passed and nothing had changed. By the time I got inside the diner, my mother was standing by the front door, smiling as if she had personally summoned me back to Bellhaven through prayer.
“There she is!”
“Mama, please don’t make this a thing.”
She wrapped both arms around me anyway and I hugged her back. The second I smelled her signature scent, Chanel No. 5, something inside me loosened. I hadn’t realized how badly I needed my mother until I was standing in her arms.
She squeezed me tighter. “My baby.”
“I’m thirty years old.”
“And?”
I laughed against her shoulder. When she finally released me, she held me at arm’s length and looked me over. Her eyes dropped briefly to my left hand before returning to my face without mentioning it, and I loved her even more for that.
“You’ve gained some weight, huh?”
“Not much.”
“You look like you did.”
“That’s because you haven’t seen me since you flew to L.A. for Mother’s Day.”
“Exactly. That’s four months too long.” She reached for my suitcases and started rolling them before I could stop her.
“Mama, where are you going with my things?”
“You can put ‘em in my office ‘til later.”
I followed her through the diner and noticed it looked rougher and emptier than it ever had been.
The booths had been pushed together and covered with plastic, chairs were stacked near the counter, and boxes of supplies crowded one wall.
The familiar smell of burgers, bacon, and coffee had been replaced by sawdust and fresh paint.
My mother had kept the place going for years with quick fixes and promises to renovate eventually, but the money to do it right had never been there.
After my father died the summer before I left Bellhaven, she spent years fighting with his mother over his estate.
The battle had dragged on longer than anybody expected, but my mother had finally won and walked away with a large enough settlement to stop putting off everything she’d wanted to do with the diner.
Looking around now, I understood why eventually had finally become now.
After we squeezed my suitcases into her small, already crowded office, my mother pushed through the swinging door behind the counter, and I followed her into the kitchen.
Two women I remembered from childhood immediately stopped what they were doing.
“Look who done finally remembered where home was!” I laughed as Miss Renee set down the box she’d been sorting and came toward me.
“I knew I shouldn’t have come back here.”
“You better come gimme a hug.”
I hugged her, then Miss Cheryl, who had been helping my mother sort through years’ worth of shit they had cleared from behind the counter.
I answered the predictable questions about work, the drive, how long I was staying, and whether I was hungry.
Nobody mentioned my engagement, which, of course, meant everybody fucking knew.
One of the workers passed behind us carrying a toolbox. “Afternoon, Miss Loretta.”
“Darius, is he still back there?”
“Yeah. He checkin’ the plumbin’.”
“Tell him my daughter is here.”
Darius glanced at me before recognition crossed his face. “Sol?”