Page 45 of Stuck with the Hero Next Door

Something flickered across his face—recalibration, maybe. He was rewriting a story he thought he'd understood.

“So Everwood is...” He didn't finish the question.

“Everwood was an accident,” I said, then immediately wished I could take it back because it sounded so much harsher than I meant it. “A good accident. The best accident. But not something I'd planned.”

He nodded slowly, processing. “And now?”

“Now I don't know,” I admitted. “If I’d received the offer a few months ago, I wouldn’t have hesitated. But now—I don’t know what I want.”

He looked at me and, in that moment, I felt completely seen and exposed. “What would leaving mean to you?”

I hesitated. I wasn't ready to speak it out loud. Because speaking it would make it real, would turn this swirling mess of confusion into something I'd have to deal with.

“It would mean following through on the original plan,” I said finally. “The one I made with my mom before she died. Living in the town where she grew up. Living the life she and I planned before I even knew what I wanted. Living the life she wanted.”

“And staying? Here, in Everwood?”

“Staying would mean...” I stopped, trying to find words for something I hadn't fully articulated even to myself. “Staying would mean choosing what I've built here over what I thought I wanted. It would mean admitting that maybe my plans changed without me noticing.”

Levi exhaled slowly, a long breath that turned visible in the cold air. As the days grew shorter, evening chill came on sooner. When he spoke, his voice was gentler than I'd expected but also more direct.

“You’re still carrying it, huh?”

I frowned. “Carrying what?”

“Your mom’s dream. Miller’s Pass. The job she pictured for you, the life she laid out.” He kicked a loose stone off the blacktop. “You’ve been hauling it around like a knight under a sacred oath.”

I huffed a laugh. “You really went full fantasy metaphor on that one.”

He grinned. “Figured you could handle it.”

“Yeah, well...I don’t even have a sword. Just a stubborn streak and a garden gnome named Professor Fungi.”

Levi’s eyebrow lifted. “Still think he needs that cement dragon?”

“Obviously. He looks lonely.”

Levi nodded solemnly. “Every hero needs a companion.”

I smiled, but the weight of his earlier words stayed with me. I knew I had been chasing someone else’s quest. I thought I’d given up on that, built something of my own. But now…

I crossed my arms, partly against the cold and partly because his words hit closer to home than I was comfortable with. “It was both of ours, you know. The dream. We planned it together.”

“When you were seventeen and you loved everything she loved,” he said, rubbing my arms against the cold. “But you're not that girl anymore, Cass. You've built something here. Something real and good and entirely your own. You know, in all this time, I’ve heard about your mom and English, but I’ve never heard you rave about your love for English. It’s always been science. Do you even like teaching English, Cass?”

The nickname caught me off guard—rare from him, and softer than usual. Emotion welled up unexpectedly. It made what he was saying feel more intimate.

“So what?” I said, hearing the defensiveness in my voice even as I tried to control it. “I shouldn't take the job because I've gotten comfortable here? Because I like my lunch spot and the students don't fall asleep during my lessons on mitosis?”

He smiled, but it was barely there and gone quickly. “No. You shouldn't take the job because you think it'll bring her back somehow. That fulfilling her vision will make you feel closer to her or more worthy of the dreams she had for you.”

That stung more than I expected. It was a sharp ache, and my chest tightened in response.

I looked away toward the tree line, where a squirrel was conducting what appeared to be a very serious negotiation with a bird over territorial rights to a particular branch.

“I know she's gone, Levi,” I said quietly.

“I know you do.”