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“Oh, wow.” I grab Maya’s arm and hold it out. The wordkismetwas carved into her skin by a stalker when he tried to kill her a few years ago, but instead of covering it up, Maya got the word outlined in bright shades of purple. It looks like someone had used water paints on her forearm with all the colors that surround the word. It’s beautiful, and I can’t help the tears that sting my eyes when I see it in all its glory.
“Oh, don’t you just love it? James and Jonathan helped me choose the colors that we put on it. I figured that there was no way I would ever forget what was done, and it brought me Brian, James, and Jonathan. So why shouldn’t I make something beautiful out of the evil?”
As we stand on the lawn, looking back at their house, the man in question saunters up and puts his arms around Maya’s waist. “Hey there, Lilly. Glad you made it safe.”
“It’s Margot, Brian. No one’s called me Lilly, even for fun, since I left. And how could I stay away? Maya told me it was an emergency.” I know that it will take some time for him to call me by my first name, but hopefully I won’t be spending enough time in Maine for it to be a problem.
“Well, I don’t know if I said it’s an emergency. But there is definitely a situation.” Before Maya can say anything else, a large black truck pulls into the driveway.
“Who’s that?” I ask my friends, but the look on Brian’s face tells me everything I need to know. Guilt and a little bit of fear cloud his eyes. “Brian, why is Jake here?”
“I don’t know, but I’ll go tell him now probably isn’t a good time.” Brian lets go of Maya, but Jake’s door swings open and the man hops out. “Damn, too late. Here he comes.”
“Thanks. Thanks a lot for that.” I can’t keep the biting sarcasm in check, so I decide to leave while I can. “I’ll see you later.”
“Oh no, you don’t. We have a whole day planned out. There’s a lot to talk about. Come on inside. I need to change. Brian says I’m not allowed to go out in my pajamas anymore.”
“Love, I’ve told you. You can’t wear your pajamas into town.” Brian rolls his eyes as Jake approaches our group. “Tell her, Jake. It’s not okay to wear your pajamas into town. People will talk. Or leggings,” he quickly adds. “You can’t wear those leggings into town either. I can’t kill every man who stares at your ass.”
Jake looks at me with fire in his eyes, and I feel like everything is melting away around us until there’s nothing. Nothing but us and the history and pain that we’ve caused each other.
He finally blinks, and the heat is gone, only to be replaced with an icy resolve. I look away, but I can’t figure out why I have a stabbing ache in my chest.
“Come on, Maya. Let’s get you changed and get out of here before a lobster crawls onto the lawn.”
Ten minutes later, we’re pulling out of the driveway in my rental car while Maya tells me that we are meeting our old group at The Bean for breakfast and to discuss the ‘emergency’ that I jumped on a plane for. I glance at my friend as we ride in companionable silence and know that I’m home.
“You know, there’s a lot that you’ve missed out on while you were gone. I think you need to hear it from me.” Maya looks at me with a guarded expression, one that I haven’t seen on my friend’s face in a long time.
Even though I haven’t come back to Birch since the miscarriage, Maya and Brian flew to Arizona to attend my graduation. Plus, we video chat almost every day. If something’s wrong, I make a promise to myself that I’ll do whatever it takes to help make it right.
“We can just talk about most of it when we get to The Bean. But there’s one thing you should know before we get there though.” I wait for her to continue, but she’s unusually silent.
Pulling into a parking spot on High Street, I put the car in park and turn to look at my friend. “Come on, you know there’s nothing you can say that’s going to make me mad at you. I got on a freaking plane because you told me there was an emergency. So spit it out already.” Although I’m not frustrated that Maya had resorted to using a fake emergency to get me home, I’m on edge just being in the place I once called home.
“I think it’s time you come home and fight for Jake. It’s time.” Maya’s words stun me into silence for a few moments.
Coughing, I turn away to hide the flush that is creeping into my face. “I don’t know what to say to that, doll. You know that I left for a reason. He was ready to settle down, and I still have a lot of living to do. There’s nothing that I can offer him now that I couldn’t offer him then. I don’t even know what I’m going to do with my degree now that they’ve hired a new director in Tempe.”
“Well, don’t worry about all that right now. I think I have that figured out, but we’ll talk about that when we’re inside. I’m talking to you away from everyone else because you and I both know that you were never worried about the life that Jake wanted. You were afraid that he wouldn’t want you, because his life was going somewhere and you felt like you were just sitting there—stagnant. Well, you’re not stagnant anymore. You’ve got a degree in Emergency ManagementandCriminal Justice. You’ve accomplished a lot while you’ve been gone. Don’t you sit there and demean yourself.”
“I’m not demeaning myself.” Still, I know it isn’t true. In my eyes, I’ll always be the girl whom the deputies had taken in after my dad died. I’ll always have that hanging over my head when interacting with them, and I’ll do anything to change it. It’s one of the reasons I used the miscarriage as an excuse to run away from the man that I have always loved in one form or another since I was a child.
“Come on, then. Let’s go inside. The girls are waiting.” Maya doesn’t say anything else as she gets out of the car and waits for me to follow.
The coffee shop is the same as it has always been, covered in old license plates from all over the country. There are pictures of locals that were taken on vacation in different places like Alaska, Hawaii, and even Florida scattered in open spaces on the walls. Mismatched chairs crowd the room, making it a struggle to maneuver around the different tables. Luckily, the women we have come to see are sitting relatively close to the door.
Poppy, a redheaded dispatcher, stands up as soon as she sees the two of us enter the café. “Maya! You’re here! Margot! I’m so happy that you’re home. Get over here, girl.” And then I find myself engulfed in the vanilla scent that Poppy always wears. After I return the hug, I hold the other woman’s arms while I look at my friend.
“Poppy. Lord, your hair is getting long.” Poppy is tall and… special, reminding me of a fairy princess with red hair that hangs in cascades of curls down her back. “It’s been too long.”
“You could say that again, you ass. It’s been a long-ass time. What took you so long to come home?” Cutting to the chase, Abby pipes up from her seat at the table. Her piercing eyes stare right into my soul and make it impossible to lie about why I left, so instead, I don’t say anything about it.
“I missed you too, Abby.” I look away from the other woman and take a seat at the table. “I really did. I missed you guys.”
“What about me, you brat?” Megan, the last member of our party, looks at me with raised eyebrows as she walks toward us from the counter with drinks in her hands. “I know your ass missed me too.”
“Not at all,” I say with an exaggerated wink.
