Page 168 of Where Roads Lead

“Elsie? Does Will know? About the fiance?”

I pressed my lips together, feeling like I was guilty of something but not sure what.

“No,” I said. “But I’m going to tell him.”

“You should.” She nodded. “Soon.”

Her words hastened the panic that had been growing inside of me, and I couldn’t help but feel that time was already running out.

Chapter Forty-Nine

Will

Elsie really wanted to say something.

Based on the way her leg bounced restlessly against the seat, and the way she chattered on for the entire first minute of the car ride without taking a breath—I was betting money that whatever it was, it wasn’t going to be one of the more fun conversations we’d have.

After a brief monologue covering the topics of: the delicacies of Quincy Market, the energy of TD Garden, and a bizarre segue into the history of the Boston Tea Party, she finally threw me off by uttering dramatically:

“How ‘bout them Red Sox, huh?”

“It’s not baseball season.”

She frowned. “I know. It’s just an expression.”

I shot her a look. “‘How ‘bout them Red Sox’ is not an expression used when the Red Sox aren’t playing, Els.”

She groaned. “You’re impossible.”

“I’m impossible?” I laughed.

“Yes! Because every day you’re always trying to ask me about my life in Boston, but the one time I need you to bring it up, you flat out refuse to.”

My eyes widened as I turned to look at her in the dark.

I turned toward her. “You want to talk about Boston?”

She nodded.

“You could’ve just said so.”

“Yes, well. I’m emotionally stunted, Will. And sometimes it’s hard to talk about bad memories.”

“I get that.”

“I told you a little bit about the guy already—”

“Actually, you didn’t,” I said, considering I knew nothing other than that there was a guy. A vague, hazy image in my mind that I couldn’t help but hate.

“But I haven’t told you about my parents yet—”

“I’m curious to hear about them, too,” I said, because it didn’t make any sense to me that she wouldn’t mention them, call them, or make any notion of wanting to visit them soon.

“And I guess the easiest way to tell the story is to explain how they’re both connected. The guy. And my parents. And, uh, the reason I left.”

She swallowed, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, as if she was scared I might judge her for whatever it was she was going to say.

But it didn’t matter to me what happened before. All that mattered was now and our future moving forward.