AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I get it. You always want to look your best around an ex,” she said. “I have no feelings for my ex-husband whatsoever, but I’d hate to see him on a leggings and messy bun day.”
“Exactly,” I said. “But I really wish I said something instead of running into the house.”
She nodded and took a sip of her caramel macchiato. After setting her mug down on the table, she wrapped her hands around it and looked me in the eye.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“Doyou think there’s still something there with Adam?”
My stomach tightened with her question. It’s the one I’ve been avoiding asking myself for eight days. I swear I haven’t been holed up in my house pining for Adam Barnes all these years, but that’s what’s been lingering in the back of my mind since I found out he was coming home for the summer.
“I’m sorry,” Eve said. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“You didn’t.”
“Well, it didn’t exactly make you happy,” she said. “Obviously I only know the CliffsNotes version of your relationship, but it seems to me like it ended due to life circumstances more than incompatability.”
“Things between us didn’t end badly, they just ended. Adam and I made plans, but right after I graduated veterinary school, Nanny Jules was diagnosed with leukemia. How could I not come home to take care of her? She raised me after my parents died and was my only family. I couldn’t live with myself if I was across the country while she was here struggling.”
“Did he consider coming back with you?”
I shook my head.
“Adam always wanted to move away, and I was all in for that. After college, one of the reasons he applied to the management training program was because it put him on the fast track up the corporate ladder. Plus he wanted to see the country, and the training had him in a new location every few months. I went along with him and when he finished that, we settled in Michigan while I went to veterinary school. He was offered a promotion in Boston and we were planning on moving there after graduation, but I found out about Nanny Jules and came home. Dr. Madden offered me a position, so I decided to stay.” I shrugged. “Adam went to Boston.”
“And that was it?”
“Pretty much.”
“You haven’t spoken since?”
“We talked on the phone and he came home once for his brother’s wedding.” I held my hands up. “But where were we going? We decided to just break up. It was the best thing to do. Dragging it on was only hurting us.”
She studied me for a few seconds then smiled.
“If I was writing your story, him coming home is exactly how I’d get you back together.”
“I won’t deny there’s still something there. There probably always will be. He was my first love after all. But I’m not expecting a grand reunion.” I shook my head. “Despite what the whole town thinks, the reason I’m not with someone else is because I haven’t found anyone I wanted to be with, not because I’m holding out for Adam Barnes.”
* * *
Adam
“Looking for anyone in particular?”
I’d been so focused on scoping out the house next door, I didn’t hear my mom come outside. And even though she caught me in the act, I denied it.
“No, just relaxing,” I said. “I’m used to sitting behind a desk all day, so this manual labor is kicking my ass. But please don’t tell dad that.”
She sat in the chair across from me.
“How did it go today?”
I breathed a sigh of relief when she asked about that rather than Summer.
“The same.” I shook my head then rubbed at the aching muscles on the back of my neck. “He still hasn’t said much to me. I’ve tried initiating conversations, but give up because he doesn’t respond.”
