Page 19 of More Than My Hometown

6

MAISEY

The sound of the rain tapers off, somehow leaving me feeling raw and exposed, despite being curled up comfortably on the couch, a selection of comfort foods spread across the coffee table.

Because when the boy you secretly gave your heart away to a long time ago breaks it for a second time, only one type of metabolic havoc-wreaking caloric crap won’t do. Nope. This requires both salty and sweet. Multiple types of chocolate. And a pie.

Because pies before guys. Always.

Pretty sure Hollie Berry taught me that one.

Shifting my legs out from underneath me, I turn the volume down on the TV, the cast of Bones no longer having to compete with the weather outside to be heard, and grab another handful of Chex mix. Really, what I need to do is get up off the couch and at least stretch. My body isn’t used to this much down time—going from twelve-hour shifts on my feet to couch potato is not ideal. But here we are.

I glance at my phone, not sure what I expect it to do. The inanimate object isn’t exactly going to sprout legs and suddenly perform “Singin’ in the Rain.” I suppose I could text Emily back and answer her question about how it went at The Booby Trap, telling her no, despite her awkwardly worded question, Ewan did not “take me right there in the camping section” and there was no “epic make-out session.”

Except then I would have to tell her how it really went. And that I thought I couldn’t hurt any more than I did when I tried to give him my heart the first time and he didn’t want it. Turns out, the glued-together pieces of your heart being ripped back apart by the same person, once again telling you that they don’t want you, hurts more.

A lot more.

Stupid me for thinking that our pact meant something. That I meant something.

Ugggggh…

Throwing my head back on the couch, I try to clear my mind. To think of something—anything—other than replaying our conversation in The Booby Trap earlier today. But the only scene on tap seem to be the conversation. The one that lives rent free in my head, permanently on playback, in a weird technicolor nightmare, making everything more vivid and intense. Like watching The Wizard of Oz for the first time and going from black and white to color, the shock hits me, blinding me, even though I know exactly what’s coming.

“Come with me,” I’d said, so full of hope and excitement. The butterflies thrumming through my veins had been working overtime as I’d summoned the courage to lay it all out there.

“Where?” Ewan’s laugh was easy, light, as if he’d thought I was simply being hypothetical.

A week after college graduation, the world was at our feet. There was only one thing I wanted though. Him. Same as I always had, but never had the guts to say out loud. I was pretty sure he felt the same, so the only thing left was for one of us to say it. To pull the actual trigger on forever. And Lord knows, Ewan Hayes put the silent in strong and silent type, so he would not be the one doing it.

It was up to me.

“I got a job offer,” I told him, climbing into his lap.

We were sitting on the couch in his parents’ house, Magnolia Manor, in the middle of the afternoon, but I didn’t care. If I was going to do this, I was doing it. I also knew that if anyone were to walk in, they wouldn’t care. We’d been so close for so long, it wouldn’t have registered. And if it had, then any commentary would have been in the about damn time camp.

Straddling him, I wrapped my arm around his neck, making myself comfortable. His hands found my hips as if on autopilot, and the thought of kissing him took over. But that would come after I got this all out.

“To be a traveling nurse,” I continued, holding his gaze with mine. “It’s our chance to see the world. To experience more than Hickory Hills. Go on all sorts of adventures.”

The confused look I got caught me off guard. It was a look that told me that I would have made more sense if I had spoken in ancient Russian.

“You want more than Hickory Hills?”

It was my turn to be taken aback. He knew this. I’d talked about all the places I wanted to go, the things I wanted to see and do, for as long as I could remember. It was the whole inspiration behind applying to work with this international program.

“There’s more to life than our hometown, Ewan. You’ve got to know that,” I laughed.

“No.”

No?

“No? No what?” I asked, sitting back. “No, you don’t think there’s more than Hickory Hills or no, you won’t come with?”

Ewan looked at me like he was examining me. Trying to figure out the right answer to an exam or if he should clip the red wire or blue wire to stop a bomb from going off.

“Why do you want to go?”