The Girl Who Chased the Moon: A Novel - By Sarah Addison Allen Page 0,47
work that day, he saw Julia sitting on the front steps of his townhouse, a white cake box on her lap. It never occurred to him that she knew where he lived. It made him feel important to her, somehow. Though that was probably his delusion speaking. It spoke to him often about Julia. But this explained the black pickup truck he saw parked at the curb a couple of blocks away. As he’d passed it, he’d thought it looked like Julia’s, though he had no idea why she chose to park so far away. He wondered if she didn’t want to be seen associating with him.
He stopped in front of his garage and cut the engine. He stepped out of his Lexus, bringing his briefcase with him. He’d been looking at potential rental properties that day. His family’s property management business was slowly expanding into neighboring counties. His father had been against it at first. For a very long time, their only client had been the Coffeys, who owned most of the rental property in Mullaby. It had been a constant battle with his father to get him to even entertain the idea of taking on other properties to manage. Now business was so good they were considering opening a satellite office.
As he approached her, Julia stood. She was wearing blue jeans and a dark blue peasant blouse, the ties of the neck open. She looked so beautiful and soft, with her big brown eyes and her light brown hair shining in the afternoon light. He couldn’t see the pink streak, and he had an incredible urge to find it. He’d always been fascinated by her, drawn to her the way curious people are always drawn to things they don’t understand. But he’d done a spectacular job of ruining any chance he’d ever had of being with her, and he’d done it at the amazing age of sixteen. Truly, he should get an award or something World’s Longest Regret.
The night he and Julia had had was amazing, and something he’d dreamed about for years. Up until that night, she’d only been a fantasy. He’d been the popular preppy kid; she’d been the school’s punk hardass. He’d never thought he’d have a chance with her, so he’d kept his distance and watched her from afar. That night was everything he’d dreamed it would be, although a little bittersweet. He’d meant—absolutely—everything he’d said at the time, all caught up in the fantasy come true. But adolescence is like having only enough light to see the step directly in front of you, and no farther. When Julia had left for school the next day, he’d gotten scared. He and Holly had the approval of not only his parents and hers, but everyone in school. Especially after what had happened with Dulcie and Logan that same summer, how the whole town had turned on her and looked suspiciously at her friends, he’d wanted to hold on to what he had, and he didn’t have Julia. Julia was water in his hands. She’d slipped right through. Lovely and strange and unpredictable, she’d been everything he wasn’t. Nothing he was used to. He’d reacted badly when she’d called him and told him she was pregnant. When he thought back to that conversation, it was like watching a movie. It was the only way he could deal with it, to totally disassociate. That wasn’t him. That was a ghost of himself, some horrible boy who’d forced a troubled girl to have an abortion because he hadn’t wanted to face the consequences of his actions.
But he ended up facing the consequences anyway. Fate has a way of biting you in the ass like that. He thought he’d moved on, first with Holly, then by throwing himself into the family business. But then Julia came back to town and he realized for the first time that he hadn’t moved on at all.
He’d just been waiting.
Waiting for her to come back and forgive him.
“I didn’t know you knew where I lived,” he said as he walked up the steps toward her.
“Apparently, I didn’t. Someone told me once that you owned that big house on Gatliff Street. I assumed you lived there. But Stella told me that’s where you and Holly lived when you were together, and that you’d moved here after the divorce.”
“Holly and I still own that house jointly, actually.” He stopped on the porch and stood in front of her. “When she moved to Raleigh, we agreed