AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER1
Kinley
“You own a lot of stuff,” my youngest sister, Aurora, says, peering inside the nearly full storage unit. The movers have unloaded most of my belongings from the truck. The only items left are a sectional, a couple of dressers, and a bunch of boxes stuffed in the very back.
In minutes, my entire life will be crammed inside a twelve by sixteen space.
“Yeah, I guess I do.” I let out a sigh and wait for inevitable tears to sting my eyes.
They don’t come.
My eyes are dryer than the Sahara Desert.
Breakups are supposed to make people sad. Aren’t they? But, it seems the emotional churn in my gut is only about my beloved furniture getting man-handled into a less than pristine storage unit. I spent fiveyearssaving up for, and picking out, every piece. Each intended for a future that no longer exists.
When I told my boyfriend, Anders, that I needed to stay in Caribou Creek for most of the summer, he didn’t take the news well. We’d been fighting since the day I left Anchorage almost two weeks ago to answer Grandma Rose’s call. In my defense, I thought she was dying—we all did. But dying certainly wasn’t on her agenda. She surprised me and my sisters with an announcement: she was heading out on a world cruise and needed us to run her diner for an undecided length of time.
When I told Anders, he wasn’t supportive. Atall.
I suppose I should’ve seen all of this coming. Well, maybe not the finding him in bed with my only city friend part. But in hindsight, the breakup was textbook predictable. The lack of sex and intimacy, and my complete lack of give a shit about it, should’ve been the first clue that this was inevitable.
“At least you never moved in with the guy, right?” Aurora says as the movers unload the sectional.
“Yeah.” If the ass-hat and my ex-friend had done the deed on my two-thousand-dollar Sleep Number, I’d have to burn the mattress. After I sent them the bill, of course. But Anders never stayed over at my place. He was always too above that. The mattress, thankfully, is unscathed. If I only had a way to haul it to Caribou Creek, I’d set it up in the guest room I’ll be calling home for the next month. Or whenever Gran gets back.
“You sound bummed,” Aurora notes, giving me a little side-eye, “but you don’t sound…”
“Sad?”
“Yeah.”
I shrug, just as confused as Aurora about my lack of feelings. I thought I loved Anders. I had expected him to propose any day. Or to at least offer me a key and ask me to move in to his place. I’d been willing to go on a little faith; to assume that living together would fix all the problems I was too happy to ignore. That’s why I allowed my apartment lease to expire.
But after the big blowout fight we had two nights ago, I knew I was done.
Him conning Stacy into his bed later that same night filled me with actual relief. The gutless wonder. He had to know. Cheating is something we can’t, and won’t, come back from. And he made sure I saw it too. Calling to ask for that damn book back he has no intention of reading. The moment I spotted them from the sidewalk outside his apartment, lip-locked and entangled together, I stopped wanting to fix what was so clearly broken. I just wanted out.
Maybe it’s seeing my oldest sister Willow so happy with Mason that made me realize what I was missing in my own relationship. Or just the horrible, selfish way Anders acted on the phone night after night just because I wasn’t around to keep him company. And all the freaking passive-aggressive sighs because he ran out of his favorite coffee, or his shirts were still at the dry cleaners because I’d left him high and dry. I wasn’t there forhim? The mere suggestion of him driving to my hometown on the weekends was laughably inconvenient for him.
“I hear there’s lot of single, hot guys in Caribou Creek these days,” Aurora says with a giggle, nudging me with her elbow.
“No thanks.” I shake my head vehemently “I think I’m taking the rest of the year off from dating.” With a mutter under my breath, I add, “Maybe forever.”
“That’s everything,” one of the movers says, handing me a tablet to sign.
“Now what?” Aurora asks once I hand the tablet back and the movers load up in their truck.
“We grab a bite to eat and head back to Caribou Creek.” Grandma Rose leaves for her cruise tomorrow, and we have to be back to officially take over diner duties in the morning. I offered to drive her down to Anchorage today, but she insisted on taking the train. Apparently, the bridge jackpot—or poker, depending on who you ask—was more than the advertised twenty bucks. Grandma Rose has booked first class everything on this trip, scenic train ride included. “Maybe we can convince someone’s chef to come with us,” I add in jest. “Or kidnap one.”
“Does that mean he said no?”
“Who?”
“Rowan.”
My pulse doubles hearing his name aloud. Willow urged me to ask my former best friend if he’d fill in at the diner. He worked in the kitchen one summer when we were still in high school and seemed to have a knack for cooking. But ever since Willow’s almost wedding, we haven’t been on speaking terms. “I thought we weren’t asking him.”
“Willow didn’t tell you?”
