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But I’m here now.
And I can’t get over the time lost and his scar.
My chest rises and falls heavily. “Parry—”
“You came.” His surprise is unmistakable.
My brows knit together, confused. “Of course I came. You called. Don’t you remember?”
He lets out a long breath. “Yeah…but…” His smoky voice tapers off like he’s considering his words carefully, and he rubs the back of his neck. “I didn’t think you’d come back. No one ever does.”
“For Colt,” I say my brother’s name. “I’d come back.”
He nods strongly. “I’m glad you did.” He grabs a towel and bends down to the broken glass. “Scared the shit out of me though. Could have texted, you know?” He smiles, the movement pulling the scar.
I try not to stare, but he’s inspecting me head-to-toe too.
Through his eyes, I’ve gone from eighteen to twenty-four in a blink. How different do I really appear? I swallow my feelings and manage to say, “I haven’t texted you in six years. Didn’t want to break the cycle.”
He tosses some broken glass and cracked steins back into the tray.
I step closer to help.
He whips his head up. “Zoey, do-do-doon’tttt!” he stutters, his voice caught in the t. Frustration crests his brow, but fear and something more forceful and protective are clearer.
I stop cold, feet away from the broken glass.
Parry has had a stutter ever since his parents died. As the story goes, his nature-loving mom and dad camped at Edge of the World one night. The primitive campground, located among a wooded cliffside in Mistpoint, is home to urban werewolf legends and a lot of wildlife. Bears, wolves, foxes.
Don’t go camping at Edge of the World on a full moon, locals will tell out-of-towners, hoping to entice them into the Supernatural Oddities shop. Just to spend money in our shabby tourist traps.
The only supernatural thing here is October Brambilla’s catlike balance. Perfectly agile. Never trips. Never falters. Quick and swift with soft hands that’ve caught me before.
I think about how when Parry’s parents were killed from an animal attack on a full moon, they became a staple in the Harbor’s history.
Don’t go camping at Edge of the World on a full moon. You’ll die like Mr. & Mrs. DiNapoli.
I believe bad fates reoccur here. Animal attacks happen, and this one just happened on a perfect full-moon day to spin a tale.
But Parry—he never believed a pack of wolves ripped their tent and killed them. He’s convinced they were murdered from a stranger passing through. A stabbing in the dark. And what better place to hide a killing than a town full of ghost stories and shitty detective work?
He was fifteen back then.
His older brother became his guardian, and Enzo DiNapoli even took over their parents’ job. Cemetery caretakers. Enzo is the local grave digger, and I’ve rarely seen him. He only comes out at night.
Parry only comes out during the day.
Our eyes meet again, and his soften a fraction. “Just…don’t get close.” He manages to speak without the stutter this time. Glass shards still scatter the floorboards.
Realization hits me. “Jesus, Parry, I’m not going to get cursed touching some broken glass.” I shuffle closer and squat across from him.
“You don’t know that.” He’s quick to scoop more glass in a rag. “This place has a way of making a one-in-a-million freak accident become a sure thing.”
Impossibly true.
And definitely true.
I’m not that confident a piece of glass won’t impale my heart. But when you grow up in Mistpoint Harbor, you learn quickly not to let that kind of fear consume you.
“I know I’m not indestructible, just like no one here is,” I say like he’s forgetting I grew up in this town too. “Don’t baby me just because I’m back.”
He holds my gaze with more softness.
Like I said, he’s Colt’s friend. Where you found one, you’d eventually find the other. They even sailed together on the high school team. But in a way, Parry has always been like a third brother to me.
When I knew I was bisexual, Parry was the first person I told. I love Parry, and he’s the kind of person that’d take your secret to the grave.
At fourteen, I wasn’t really ready to come out to anyone else.
Now, though, I’m fairly sure most people in town know I’m bi.
Parry says quietly with that natural smokiness, “I’m not babying you.” He stops for a beat, then sighs heavily. “Okay, maybe I am. But fuck, Zo, you left. And you’ve avoided getting cursed this far.” He throws the last bit of glass in the tray.
I see where this is going and my stomach sinks. “Parry—”
We both stand up, and he cuts me off quickly. “I asked you back here, Zoey. Me. And you fucking came.” He laughs like he still can’t believe his own eyes. “So if anything bad happens to you…”
