degree you worked so hard to earn? Apply it to the bakery?”
I bit down on my bottom lip. I’d graduated this last May. I think everyone was waiting around on what I was goin’ to do. If I’d find some small firm here in Gingham Lakes, or if I’d move away to a big city.
Maybe I’d contemplated it for a day or two.
Running away.
Getting free of the memories that bound and chained.
But I’d come to accept that idea was about as far-fetched as it came.
Because I knew leaving A Drop of Hope would be impossible.
Felt like I’d been etched into those walls.
As if the years had seeped into my bloodstream until it was written in me.
Carly hopped up onto the counter, swinging her legs as she sipped at her wine. She tipped her glass at Josiah, though her head was angling for me. “You know she wasn’t about to leave A Drop of Hope. She’s been waiting around there for the last three years for Evan to show back up.”
Was she serious?
My mouth dropped open. “Carly. I have not. I can’t believe you would even say that.”
I was gonna throttle her.
“Lies, lies, lies.” She singsonged it in the middle of taking a sip of her wine.
“You’re just trying to stir up trouble,” I warned. Did she really have to go and point out the obvious?
Last thing I needed was for her to rub it in.
“And you’re just trying to live in the delusions you’ve been living in for your whole life. Sweet Pea Frankie Leigh and her fantasies. Only this one is straight-up ridiculous. You’re really gonna stand there and deny it?”
Sadness billowed through my being, and I tried to swallow around the lump. “You’re right. Maybe it is time I finally stopped living in a fantasy world. Maybe it’s time I accepted that Evan is my best friend and that was all he was ever meant to be.”
Maybe then we could figure out how to get back there. To the days when our trust was bigger than the worries of our world. When our friendship could conquer all.
Carly laughed.
Loud.
This cackling sound that rattled against the kitchen cabinets.
“Are you hearing this?” she asked Josiah in exaggerated disbelief.
“Loud and clear, Nutter Butter.”
“You should have seen her face when Evan walked through that door.” She hummed in some kind of morbid satisfaction because her mind going that way was nothing but sadistic.
Like she was taking some kind of joy in causing me more pain.
“This isn’t funny, Carly,” I told her, voice starting to tremble.
She frowned in true sympathy. “Nope. It’s not. But you claiming that Evan isn’t your soul mate is damned near hysterical.”
My heart clutched all over the place, then it was tipping out onto the ground when I heard the knuckles rapping at the door.
Milo started barking like mad, scrambled to get on his feet, and trotted for the door.
“Damn it,” I managed to mutter.
Carly smirked. Josiah laughed under his breath.
“That should tell you something right there.” She pointed toward the door.
I scowled at her from over my shoulder.
She sure wasn’t gonna make this any easier, was she?
I crossed the small living space to the door, and I worked through the lock, cracking it open and praying I could act like a normal person and not some crazy loon who was gettin’ ready to lose her mind.
Heart had gone missin’ a long time ago, so I guessed the ailment was fitting.
Jack was on the other side, like I’d known he would be, all dark brown hair and thick beard and tattooed sleeves.
“Hey,” he said in his casual way.
“Hi,” I mumbled. Even that one word felt like a lie.
Jack frowned. “Bad day?”
“You could say that.”
“She’s spun-up because her best friend, Evan, is back,” Carly shouted from the kitchen.
I was going to throttle her.
Jack frowned. “Evan?”
I forced a bright smile. “Yep. Remember I told you about him?”
Only I’d barely mentioned him. Unable to speak his name, to confess what he’d meant to me.
“Guy you’d told me about who took off? The deaf one?” Jack’s voice was edged with hardness.
I tried my best not to throw the defensiveness I felt right back, wishing that I’d never said a word at all. “That’s him.”
“What is he doing back?”
I shrugged like it didn’t matter. “Who knows.”
Could see he was getting ready to ask more questions, so I cut him off. “You’d better get in here. Dinner is almost finished. I bet you’re starving.”
Six
Evan
Night clung to the walls of my old childhood bedroom.
A palpable quiet echoed