Chapter 2
Kelsi
She wondered if she was well and truly insane.
She had, after all, fully escaped this town years before and made a name for herself in Virginia Beach, or “the big city” as it was fondly called here in her hometown of Oyster Shoals, Virginia.
After the incident happened, she’d told herself she would never again call this place home, believing that maybe everything had happened for a reason, to free her of this town and its simple lather, rinse, and repeat monotony.
So why, after all she had made of herself in Virginia Beach, all the years, tears, and money she put into school to get the opportunity to claw her way out of this place, was she voluntarily returning?
It all boiled down to Tom, she supposed, and the breakup.
It had shaken something loose inside of her, and her priorities had shifted.
She no longer viewed her hometown as a place she had to escape from, but rather a place she could grow old in.
Nowhere else was as comforting or nostalgic as the small, quiet, waterfront community she had run circles around with him during their childhood together.
Kelsi knew what Abby had been worried about when she asked if Kelsi was sure she wanted to do this.
Moving back to the town where they had made memories on every speck of dirt and sand was bound to be painful.
And, to be honest, Kelsi was worried about it too. But it was way past time to return.
“Sweetie, where do you want this box to go?” Her mom looked at her with windswept, fire-engine red hair from the porch of Kelsi’s white cottage.
She had closed on the home the week prior.
Its front porch was wide and perfect for the swing she’d ordered.
She pictured the warm summer evenings she’d have curled up on it, a book and cup of tea in hand.
The house was a quaint two-story home, only two bedrooms and one and a half baths, but it was perfect for her.
Kelsi peered at the box her mom was holding, giving a chuckle when she noticed that on the top of the box, right in front of her mom’s face in big, bold, black marker, was the word BOOKS. No wonder her mom was bending her back practically in half to keep the box suspended.
“That box will go to the loft, Mom.” The second story of the house was a finished loft space with walk-in access to the attic on either side and huge windows at the back wall that let her look out over the calm and quiet creek her property backed up to.
“I’m planning on installing built-in shelves and putting a desk up there so it can be my own personal library. ”
“A library, huh? Certainly feels like it based on how heavy this box is.”
“Want to leave it for me? It’s one of the heavier boxes, so if you don’t want to drag it all the way upstairs I can grab it.”
“Psh. With your twig arms? You’d be lucky to get this up to the front door. I got this one.” Her mom turned and headed inside, moving confidently but with slightly shaky arms.
Kelsi took in her surroundings. The house was amazing, but it wasn’t perfect.
She had always dreamed of owning the property that was now directly across the creek from hers.
From the large loft windows, she had a direct, unobstructed view of it.
Over the past few hours of unpacking, she and her mom had observed a few men on the property lugging across some large wooden beams, and she could only imagine the damage they were doing to the beautiful house.
Unfortunately, it had not been for sale when she was first looking to move.
If it had been, she would have bought it in a heartbeat.
As a girl, she fell in love with the old home and had romantic, childish daydreams about the gazebo on the property’s point. She’d imagined it lit up with fairy lights at night, dancing around them with a man who loved her, like the scene from The Sound of Music.
But it hadn’t been her own dream home. No, the dream had been hers and his, and to live there without him would feel wrong. No matter how their relationship had ended, her dreams for that home had been more for the life with him in it than the house itself.
“Am I the only one doing any work here? Grab another box and keep moving!” her mom called from an upstairs window.
Kelsi chuckled and grabbed a box from the trunk of her car labeled KITCHEN.
The gravel and crushed oyster shells that made up the makeshift driveway crunched underneath her sneakers as Kelsi made her way up the short porch stairs to the front door.
She took the box into the kitchen, piling it onto the island with the others.
She closed her eyes and let her head fall back, exhaling a deep breath up at the ceiling.
“Hey, you hungry yet? I was thinking we could call it a night and head into town to grab a burger from that new place.” Her mom’s voice cut through her thoughts. She was leaning through the doorway into the kitchen, waiting for Kelsi’s response.
“Yeah, I could eat. And I could use a break.”
“Perfect! I’m going to wash up quickly, then we can head out.”
Kelsi sighed to herself and walked back out to her car to pick up a final box from the trunk to carry into the house before they left for dinner.
She grabbed one labeled BEDROOM 1 and marched back into the house, ready for the next chapter of her life.
Hopefully this one would have a better ending than the last.
* * *
“Nothing has changed at all,” Kelsi mused quietly as her mom maneuvered her car down Main Street. She looked over the two blocks that made up the central business district of the town. The pastel-painted buildings looked the same as they had the last time she’d been home.
“Not true,” her mom shot back in a defensive tone. “See that building there? Used to be the burger place?”
Kelsi squinted out the window at the baby-blue awning that read Coastal Burger Joint—just as it had the last time she had been there. “Um, yeah? It’s still the burger place, Mom.”
“Yes, but it burned down. And they rebuilt it. So it’s new now.”
Kelsi looked again at the building, trying to find any sign of the fire or something different than what she had remembered it looking like, but she couldn’t find anything. “Mom, they rebuilt it exactly the same. That doesn’t make it new.”
Her mom gave a disbelieving scoff. “It’s totally new. They added a new burger because of it. It’s called the Phoenix.”
Kelsi laughed. “Of course it is. Maybe that’s what I’ll order.”
They parked alongside the building and made their way to the front.
Sure enough, when they walked in, Kelsi noticed they had restored the interior so it looked the same as it had before the fire.
The hostess led them to a table and left them with their menus, promising that their waiter would be with them soon.
He turned up less than a minute later, all smiles. “What can I get you ladies to drink? The gentleman in the corner offered to pay for them, so may I recommend our margaritas?” He nodded his head toward the back of the bar, where, sure enough, a man was smirking in Kelsi’s direction.
He was handsome, that was for sure. His blond hair caught the low lighting in the restaurant and he casually brushed it off his forehead. When she caught his eye, his grin widened, and he tipped the glass in his hand in her direction.
Her face flushed, and she tore her gaze away from the handsome stranger and back to the waiter, still waiting patiently for her order. “A margarita, please. On the rocks, no salt.” She looked at her mom, who grinned and ordered the same with a wink at her.
Their waiter came back with their drinks not too long after and she looked for the blond stranger again to thank him, but he was gone.