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The next morning, I was in the middle of brewing a pot of coffee when a few sharp knocks at the door made me nearly jump out of my skin. It was the first morning I’d woken up alone in the house. Robbie, whose business was picking up for the summer season, left a note saying he’d gone in early to finish up a big order. Which was fine. I could handle being alone.
Totally fine. Not stressful at all.
“Totally fine,” I said now as I wiped my hands on my shorts and moved through the living room, my heart pounding painfully against my ribs. Stepping up to the door, I took a look through the peephole only to find it effectively blocked.
Is it him? How did he find me? There’s no way he could have- wait.
“Knox?” I called softly and pressed my ear against the door as I waited for a response.
“How’d you know?” He laughed, and I unlocked the door.
“You always used to cover the peephole with your thumb. Creep,” I said, the corners of my lips turning up. Down, girl, I thought as I looked him up and down.
“You look well rested,” he said and leaned a shoulder against the door frame.
“I feel good, or, as good as I can.”
He held up a brown paper bag with the Sundown Seafront Cafe logo on it. “Will this make you feel better?”
I took the bag and opened it, inhaling the delicious scent. “A double chocolate muffin? You must really feel like a dick.” I laughed and turned around, hearing his footsteps
as he followed me. Whenever a fight occurred while we were in a relationship, Knox would always apologize with a double chocolate muffin. I had a weakness for anything chocolate, so it was an almost instant fix to whatever argument we were having.
A sheepish look crossed his face. “I shouldn’t have brought any of that up the other day. I was an asshole.”
I offered him a small smile. “Bribing me with muffins and apologies, Fitzgerald?”
“Whatever works,” he responded and lifted on shoulder in a half shrug.
We sat down at the kitchen table and I dug into the chocolate ecstasy. Knox sat down next to me and we just… talked. Reminisced. Caught up.
“So, City, tell me about New York.”
I laughed at the nickname, ignoring the small flutter in my stomach at the endearment. “It’s… different,” I finally said. “It took some time to adjust and at first I thought it was so loud. But I suppose the anonymity is nice.”
Knox nodded his head and then smiled, cocking his head to the side as he stared at me. “It’s hard to picture you there.”
I wanted to respond and tell him that it wouldn’t have been hard to see me there if he’d just gone with me, but I kept my mouth shut. The past was the past and there was no reason to dwell on it. It was five years ago and I couldn’t change the things we said or the way we ended our relationship. All I could do was focus on the fact that I had a second chance at life, at coming home and seeing what Port James had to offer, because no matter how far I went, Port James was always going to be home. No matter how much I loved the city, I could never feel like I was totally myself. Yes, the anonymity was nice and I’d finally gone somewhere where no one knew the Ashford name. The pros were great, but even I was smart enough to know that, at this point, the cons were outweighing them.
“I did alright,” I responded modestly.
“Oh, trust me, I can tell.”
I rolled my eyes at his line and then laughed before switching gears and asking him about work and what life had been like over the last few years.
“Taking over the gym has been a trip,” he answered and leaned back in his chair, scratching the back of his neck.
I nodded my head and chewed thoughtfully before answering. “But you’ve always known what to do. You helped your dad out nearly every day when we were younger.”
It was true. If we weren’t hanging out alone or in school, Knox had been at the gym with his father. By the time he was nineteen, he knew how to file the paperwork and was working full time as well as going to the local community college.
“Yeah, well, he taught me everything I know.”
I paused, not knowing what to say as an unspoken sadness filled the air. I watched as Knox opened and closed his mouth a few times, always preparing to speak and then staying quiet. He stared down at the table, a sort of detached look crossing his face.
“He had a heart attack,” Knox finally said quietly.
“Hey, you don’t have to talk about it. Really, it’s okay.”
