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My feet haven’t moved from the sidewalk, even long after the taxi is no longer in sight. Finally, I turn toward the house in front of me.
It’s weird how everything still looks the same, yet it feels different. The red door that Tanner and I would leave wide open when running outside to play catch after dinner before the sun went down. The white picket fence my dad would make us paint every summer lines the yard. Once, we convinced Austin, Tanner’s younger brother, to do it instead. We thought we had gotten away with it until Dad finally caught on, and he made me paint the entire thing all over in a slightly darker shade of white so he would know if I missed any spots. I can see the old shed on the side of the house where I first fingered Riley.
I adjust my backward hat and take a few calming breaths, refusing to give in to the emotions I’ve refused to allow myself to feel in years.
This is home.
I haven’t been back in six years, not since I left it all behind, including her.
The sound of heavy footsteps on gravel has me pulled from memory lane. There’s a man walking around from the back of the house, and his body goes rigid when our eyes meet. I swallow thickly.
Guess I’ve missed the opportunity to flee.Maybe it’s one of those “if I don’t move, he won’t see me” moments like you see in the movies.
“Well, I’ll be damned.”Too late.“Never thought we’d see you round here again. You must be lost or something,” he spits out with his arms crossed and expression stern.I deserved that.
Grabbing my bags off the ground, I close the distance between us. “Well, hello to you too, Dad.”
I completely lose my next train of thought when he pulls me into his arms without saying another word and slaps my back with such force that it makes me drop my bags to the ground. He pulls back with his hands still gripping my shoulders tightly and looks me up and down. I have filled out more since I was last here in Meadows Ridge—my dark, curly hair is a little longer and more unruly than ever, and the facial hair lining my jaw hasn’t been trimmed in over a week.
I left when I was just a boy, and now I’m a man—a man home to repent his sins.
“Your mother is never going to believe this. Wait.” He pauses. “Maybe I should call Dr. Kingston and have him on standby for when your mother goes into cardiac arrest.”
I wait for him to smile, showing that he’s joking, but his features remain grim.
Dad drapes one arm over my shoulder and leads me up the driveway to the front porch steps. I stop and look up at the house and exhale an unsteady breath. It feels good to be home until I take my first step and something catches my attention on the bottom of the wooden post.
Carved into the wood are the initialsCGandTH. We carved them when we were only seven years old. Getting grounded for two weeks was well worth it—one week for defacing Mama’s house and one week for using a knife unsupervised. Eventually, when Riley came into our lives, I added her initials alongside mine.
I crouch down and run my fingers over the indented wood. The post has a fresh coat of paint except for the space surrounding the carving. It’s chipped and faded from the sun, but the initials are clear as day.
“I didn’t have the heart to paint over it. It was like erasing a legacy or something. It just didn’t seem right.”
My fingers linger on theRP, and my chest tightens.
Does she still live here?
Does she still hate me for what I did?I know I do.
Is she married? Does she have kids? Is she happy?
I could easily fall down a rabbit hole of questions I don’t deserve the answers to. To keep myself from asking my father any of them, I bite down on my tongue until I taste hints of copper.
This town is small, so I know word of my return will spread like wildfire. That’s the thing I always hated about small-town living. You can’t even take a shit in the morning without half the town knowing about it by lunchtime. And by the end of the day, the entire town knows about it, but they’ve twisted it so much that you somehow ingested a flesh-eating disease and it’s eating you from the inside out and that’s why you’re shitting your brains out.
If she’s still here—she’ll know I’m back soon enough.
I push off the step and look toward the sky. The warmth of the sun’s rays hitting my skin. Deep breaths in and out at the thought of Riley still being here and possibly having moved on with her life.
“You gonna stand there all day, boy, and work on your tan?”
I quickly climb the last few steps and stand behind him. The front door creaks as he opens it.
When I snicker, he glances over his shoulder and shrugs. “What? It gives the house character.”
This time, I cover my teeth with my lips to keep my laughter silent.
“Asshole,” my father mutters and walks down the hall. I drop my bags by the front door and look around as I make my way to the kitchen.
