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PRESENT DAY...
At some point,I’m going to need to suck it the hell up and buy a car. It’s not even that far of a walk from my apartment to Annabelle’s house, but I think my eyelashes quite possibly have snowflakes frozen to them as I try to blink. Why the hell didn’t I wait at home for Belle to pick me up? Oh, that’s right. I’m stubborn.
I’ve been in Philadelphia for six months, and I’ve let myself make exactly one friend.
Not that I had many before I left Washington.
I came to Kroydon Hills because I knew it would help me feel closer to my mom. She always talked about the town where she grew up. How much she loved it here. What a great place it was to live. Close enough to the city to get lost, but small enough to still have a main street. She always talked about coming back here. But that was before cancer stole her from me.
Before a lot of things were stolen.
Annabelle Hart owns the ballet studio down the street from Sweet Temptations, the bakery I own.
Although now, she’s Annabelle Sinclair. She married the quarterback for the local pro football team, the Philadelphia Kings, a few days ago. That’s why we’re meeting today. It’s Christmas Day, and they have a game this afternoon. Belle invited me to watch it with her family in their private box.
Family. Sometimes I feel like I never really had that.
My mother loved me. But she lied to me my whole life.
About who she was.
About what she did.
I just didn’t know it until she died.
To say that I have trust issues could be the understatement of the millennium. But when you were raised to never trust anyone but your mom, and then she dies, trust doesn’t come easily. Add to that what happened after her death. After my stepdad. After I found out the truth.
Nope. I refuse to think about that now.
Not today.
Belle isn’t like that.
She doesn’t want anything from me.
She’s the first new person I’ve trusted in years. She stops in my bakery before she opens her studio, so I basically see her every day. I guess she’s worn me down because now I laugh more than I have in a long time. Smile more too.
I guess you could say my typical state is resting bitch face.
Belle’s parents are gone, so it’s just her and her little brother, Tommy. And honestly, it’s even harder not to fall in love with him. He’s the coolest kid I’ve ever met.
And it’s really only a few minutes’ walk from my place to hers. As I round the corner of her street, I’m relieved to see her car is still here. I was worried today would be the first time Annabelle Sinclair was ever on time for anything. But as I walk up the driveway, the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, and a shiver travels down my spine.
Both the driver’s side and back doors of her car are open, but no one’s inside. Tommy’s stuffed T-Rex is in the car, but he’s not. Tommy never goes anywhere without Rex. Belle’s Mary Poppins bag is lying open in the driveway.
Discarded.
She keeps her entire life in that bag. And that bag is always attached to her.
What the hell?
I take a quick glance around the ridiculously suburban street, white picket fences included, and notice a big, black Hummer, that may be her friend Bash’s car, parked across the street. After closer inspection, I realize it’s also empty and looks completely out of place among the high-end family cars parked in the neighbors’ driveways.
George’s voice whispers loudly in my memory, “Trust your instincts.”
That damn voice has saved me more times than he’ll ever know.
All those years of training.
