AllFreeNovel
Share Us
David had written her one letter.
I’ll always love you, Bree. But this is the end. I won’t be the cause of trouble between you and your family …
She’d been devastated. Her sole comfort had come from her phone conversations with Star. Myra’s daughter was her best friend, the only person who understood how much she loved David, how much more he was to her than a summer romance.
Six weeks after Bree left, Star got pregnant with David’s baby, and David dropped out of school to marry her. Bree had never spoken to either of them again.
Toby picked up his cereal bowl and slurped the remaining milk. He set the bowl on the table. “Gram told me you were rich. I bet you lied to her.”
“I was rich.” Bree gazed out the window. “Now I’m not.”
“Why?”
“Because I relied on a man to support me instead of figuring out how to rely on myself.”
“I knew you didn’t have any money.” It was an accusation, another reminder of how much he hated her. Not that she was too crazy about him, either. “When are you gonna leave?” he said.
It wasn’t the first time he’d asked the question, and she wished she had an answer. “I don’t know.”
He shoved back his chair. “You can’t keep sitting around here not doing nothing.”
He was right, and she needed to show him she had a plan. Something. Anything.
“I don’t intend to.” She turned away from the window. “I’m going to sell Myra’s honey.”
LUCY HAD NO INTENTION OF joining Panda for a chummy pizza dinner. Instead she put on her sneakers and headed outside. She hated to run, but she hated feeling like a slug even more, and she needed to work off her emotions from this miserable day.
From Goose Cove Lane, she turned out onto the highway. Eventually she passed an abandoned farm stand. Behind it, she glimpsed a small blue cottage. She heard another runner coming up behind her and didn’t have to look back to know who it was. “You’re not on the family payroll anymore,” she said as he reached her side.
“Force of habit.”
“I don’t like running, and I especially don’t like running with you.”
“Tough. This road’s too damn narrow. Get on the shoulder.”
“You can hear a car coming a mile away, and I’m doing this because I want to be alone.”
“Pretend I’m not here.” He slowed to keep from passing her. “You’re really not going back to Wynette, are you?”
“You’re just figuring that out?”
“I’d have bet anything you’d change your mind.”
“You’d have been wrong.”
“There’s always a first time.”
“You’re such a loser.” She cut across the road, turned around, and started back to the house.
He didn’t follow her.
When she got back, she biked to the beach at the south tip of the island and sat on top of a sand dune to watch the sun set over the lake. When she finally went back to the house, she found Panda sitting in one of the six mismatched chairs that surrounded the fake Victorian kitchen table she’d grown to hate, not just for its chipped green paint and ugly, too-bulky legs—one of which was propped up with a piece of folded cardboard—but because it symbolized everything that needed tending in this once-lively house.
Although the pizza box lay open in front of him, only a few slices were missing. He looked up as she came in, and the yellow light from the Tiffany-like shade hanging above the table shadowed his already swarthy skin. She addressed him impersonally, as if they were only the most distant of acquaintances. “I’ve been staying in your bedroom, and since you’re leaving tomorrow, I’d rather not move out for just one night.”
He propped his elbow on the back of his chair. “It’s my room.”
It was also the only bedroom on the first floor, which made it feel like a safe refuge from him. “I’ll be happy to make up one of the other beds for you,” she said.
