I relax further, releasing an exhale as Evee blows a raspberry against my neck, her little giggles bringing a small smile to my face.
Before Ava can respond, I turn to head to the back office, needing to get my bearings after such a weird encounter, so many conflicting feelings running through my system—intrigue and trepidation swirling through my system.
Not to mention the confusion about the snippets of memories from that night all those months ago hitting me out of nowhere.
As I open the door to the office, my brain catching up to my emotions, I hear Ava ask what his name is, so she can pass it on to Luke.
“Jack,” he says as the door closes behind me.
Jack.
CHAPTER 5
JACK
Great job,assface. Your first day back in civilization, and you forgot all social cues and how to behave properly in a public place. Grunting and one word answers worked with Banjo every Sunday, but they’re not going to work here unless I want people calling the cops on me.
I’m pacing the parking lot of Hey Honey’s, my feet taking me back and forth from the front of my truck to the back, over and over. My body is tight with anxiety and this overwhelming sense of doom, and my neck is on fire with embarrassment.
Marching in there like a complete ass,gruntingat the two baristas like a goddamn caveman—what the fuck is wrong with me?
After finally telling the redhead I was looking for Luke, I was told she would tell him I stopped by.
I had every intention of seeing Luke when I walked in—I figured coming here would mark my first stop of seeing everyone I left behind a year and a half ago, starting with Bennett’s brother and ending at my mom’s house tonight to see her and Emerson. I figured there would be time to stop at the station sometime in between the two to meet with Chief Sanders.
I hadn’t talked to the Chief since that phone call almost a year ago, screening his calls and ignoring his voicemails asking me to call him back. I thought they’d stop coming after a while, but he was a persistent bastard. I ended up calling him early this morning when I was on my way back to Milwaukee, leaving him a voicemail that I’d be stopping by the station.
I know there’s a low chance he still has a position available for me—specifically one that doesn't involve going into the field—seeing as the one he had for me last year was because of a temporary paternity leave, but I’ve been gone long enough. It’s been a year since I tried coming home the first time, and it was safe to say that went like complete shit.
It’s time to suck it up, stop feeling sorry for myself, get my job back, and put my life back together.
This last year helped me bury all those feelings that would come up whenever I would think about what happened to Bennett. I can’t say I’ve come to terms with anything or accepted it—I know that day will never come—but I’ve learned to live with the loss and the guilt I have. It’s always there, lingering in the back of my mind, but I’ve learned to ignore it.
It rarely comes up anymore.
Not since that night on the side of the road when I helpedher.
Theherthat always finds a way back into my head. The water in her eyes, the same color of calmness I find on the lake.
And eyes that looked alarmingly similar to the girl working in my dead best friend’s brother’s coffee shop.
With the baby against her chest, the redhead had most of my attention when I walked in—or at least the attention that wasn’t stuck on finding Luke, not thinking about how it’s been since I was last here and who knows what’s changed.
It wasn’t until the other barista was trying to hide her laugh at me when I forgot how to speak in complete sentences that Inoticed her. Her brown waves, twisted into a messy braid, were so dark I almost thought they were black. If it weren’t for the sunlight coming through the windows, I wouldn’t have noticed the streaks of caramel framing her face.
The slight blush to her cheeks when we made eye contact was enough to bring a man to his knees, the soft smile she was trying to hide on her face was something I didn’t know I needed to see.
Then something shifted between us.
A magnetic pull of some sort, a need for me to be closer to her. And when she leaned forward, her eyes closing as if she was trying to see something hidden behind her lids, my body moved on its own. It was a foreign feeling, considering I haven't even wanted tolookat another human in over a year.
And then she opened her eyes.
I didn’t want to let myself believe what my brain already knew to be true.
It’s her.
It’s Rumi.
