5. Avery
AVERY
“Hold up! All that, and you just… said no?” the girl with expressive light brown eyes asked as the scent of cinnamon and sugar wafted into my nose. “But I thought you said your neighbor was hot?”
“He is,” I answered sadly, cutting off another piece of the giant cinnamon roll that I swore was bigger than my head. God, this was literally the food of the gods! I popped the piece into my mouth.
“And you said he was sweet?” the other girl asked.
I wasn’t not sure if they were related or how this whole conversation at the bakery in the middle of the downtown area of Forge Creek really started, but they looked pretty similar, like they could be sisters or at the very least cousins.
Or maybe best friends that somehow grew up together and started to look like one another.
“He is.” I covered my mouth as I chewed.
“And didn’t he, like, give you his hoodie? Get you coffee and carry you to your door because you were barefoot?” the first girl asked. I nodded, completely unhappy.
“He did.” I sighed.
“But yet, you gave him the whole ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ speech?” The girl with darker eyes asked and I nodded.
“You think I’m an idiot, don’t you?” I wouldn’t blame her. I thought I was the biggest moron on the face of the earth!
“No, but… why didn’t you want to give him a chance?” the other girl asked as they both leaned forward, obviously intrigued. “Wait, do you want to join us?” She pointed to their table, and I nodded.
“Thanks.”
One moment, I was at the small bakery with my laptop out, because sitting in my home office was super unproductive the last two days.
Mostly, because all I did was stare out at Sam’s house until his truck returned, and when that happened, I hid like he had some kind of X-ray vision into my house where he would know I was creepily stalking him from.
The two girls sitting at the table next to me said hi, and we started talking, and somehow, I confessed everything about Sam. Talk about small-town charm.
“I’m Rainy, by the way,” the one with the light brown eyes said.
“And I’m Windy,” the darker-eyed one shared.
“Do you have a sister named Stormy?” I teased.
“Do you know her?” Rainy asked, and I blinked.
That’s when I saw it. Her light brown eyes sparkled with mischief, and the three of us started to laugh. “Her name’s actually Stella. Mom was over her bohemian name era by the time Stell was born.”
“Lucky bitch,” Windy said, and I grinned at them.
And not for the first time, but maybe for the first time in a long while, I let myself wonder what life would have been like if it had been a little kinder to me.
What it would be like to have been born lucky enough to have siblings. Sisters to look after you. Protected and teased you. Understood you. Saw you.
“Hey, what’s that look about?” Rainy asked. I shook my head, furiously blinking tears from my eyes. What is wrong with me? I am over the whole shoulda, coulda, woulda of life. I am thirty now, for goodness sake!
“Nothing. It’s… nothing.” I smiled, but by the way the two sisters looked at one another, I knew they were about to call me on my bullshit.
“Come on, tell us!”
“I just…” I sniffled. “You two are luckier than you know.”
“Why?” Rainy asked, opening her eyes wide.
“Because you have each other.” I shrugged. “Growing up… I didn’t have anyone.”
“Shit,” Windy muttered and grabbed my hand. “Is that why?” Her eyes saw right through to the center of me.
“What?”
“Is that why you pushed away the hot neighbor?” I swallowed hard.
Windy had hit it right on the nose.
Sharing a meal, watching him wash the dishes as the two of us shared about our lives had felt so good.
Too good.
And that was something I wasn’t used to, something I didn’t have that much luck being able to keep in my life, so it might have freaked me out.
“Maybe,” I squeaked. My shoulder rose and fell. “I just, I think I was trying to keep from…”
“What?”
“Hoping too much? I don’t know. I’m a mess.” I laughed, and they both looked at me with genuine concern in their eyes. But not as if they thought I was crazy, more like they really cared. “It’s just… no one sticks to me, you know? And don’t get me wrong, I’m good with that. Used to it.”
“Babe—” Rainy started to say, but I put a hand up to stop her.
“No, seriously, I’m not saying this for pity or anything at all. It’s just how… how life’s been for me. I’m the one people are more than okay walking away from, and he’s…”
Sam was the ultimate dream.
Perfect.
Sure, he probably had his faults, but for me, in that short amount of time, he was everything.
Protective and sweet. Funny and caring. Not that I said that or aid his name in case they somehow knew him.
I might not have lived in a small town before, but I’d seen enough Hallmark movies to know everyone mostly knew everyone.
Sam would have had the ability to obliterate my heart, and that was just after one single day of kinda hanging out together.
“You were trying to protect yourself,” Windy observed quietly, in a more than vulnerable tone I recognized. “We’ve all been there.”
“Oh my god, remember how Stella was with Luigi?”
“Walls built very high!”
“Skyscraper high!”
“What happened?” I asked, completely intrigued.
“He got through anyways, and they fell so hard in love,” Rainy shared.
“And then, their senior year, his family moved across the country, and they never saw one another again,” Stormy added.
“Life happens,” Windy and I said at the exact same time, and we gave one another a knowing look.
“Look, there will always be a reason not to do something. Our brother says that all the time and usually, I think he’s full of shit because it’s when he’s trying to talk one of us into one of his run club marathon things.
” My lips twitched. “But honestly, he’s right.
There will always be a reason not to do something, to stay in your comfort zone and try to protect yourself from getting hurt but—“
“Sometimes, it happens anyhow,” Windy added, and I nodded.
I knew they were right. “Shit, I think I messed up by not giving him a chance.” I’d known this the minute he’d shut his door behind him but hadn’t been brave enough to admit it out loud. Guess I needed two strangers to help me out with that.
“Bright side, it’s not like you won’t ever be able to see him again. I mean, you could totally walk up to his place, knock on his door, and say you’re sorry.”
“She’s totally right,” Rainy added.
“Thanks.” I smiled, and they gave me one back.
We ended up exchanging numbers, and they even invited me to join in their local book club, writing down the name of the book they were going to talk about in two weeks. I packed up after they left, buying two more cinnamon rolls and an assortment of cookies before leaving the bakery.
I walked down the main area of town, watching the people and noticing just how well everyone knew one another.
And took a chance, slipping into the small bookstore to buy that book the girls were talking about, determined to try and make friends.
Real ones. Because Forge Creek was going to be the place where I finally set down roots.
The next chance I would take would be when I got home.
If a certain truck was parked across the street.