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Placing the photo back down, I skim my fingertip over the edge of the photo frame before sitting on the white metal framed single bed, the spring mattress creaking as I did.
I was so tired. Mentally and physically tired. It had been a long few hours. I thought the drive would clear my mind but all it did was burden me even heavier with all the ‘what ifs’.
Flopping back, I gripped the top of my towel with my fingers holding it close to my body as I stared at the ceiling. My heart galloped in my chest, my pulse throbbed, and my eyes welled.
“What the hell am I going to do?” I whisper to the empty room, and the next thing I know, my eyes fall heavy and darkness takes over.
* * *
RIGGS
Leaning over the fence, I am lost in easy conversation with Austin. I see his eyes cast behind me and my ears are met with a loud rumble of an engine. I turn to look over my shoulder, the low winter sun peeping over the mountains as I watch the low, plastic sports car clattering down the dusty driveway of Maple Farm. I wince when the front of the car hits a few dug outs.
“What’s the betting it’s an outsider who took the wrong turn on their sat nav? We don’t get them sort of cars here,” I scoff, shaking my head from side to side and letting my head roll forward, my fingers running across the edge of my cowboy hat.
Turning my body round, my back rests against the fence, my arms crossing against my chest. My eyes eclipsed behind my tinted sunglasses as I watch the car roll to a halt. I turn my face to look at Austin, but he isn’t there anymore. He is moving towards the car, his baseball cap sitting on top of his head, his hands tucked into the front pockets as he walks with swag and a boyish grin on his face.
I stand tall, lifting my leg to rest the flat of my boot on the bottom fence.
Who the fuck would drive a car like that in a town like this.
Curiosity piques my interest when I see Austin’s facial expression change, his shoulders sagging as the butterfly door to the McLaren lifts. A set of long, tanned legs swing from the car, a high, stiletto heel slipping on the dusty gravel beneath it.
Stepping forward, my arms slowly unfold from my chest, my heart slamming forward when my eyes cast on her. My body stiffened like heavy, cold metal.
The one that broke my heart.
I’ve avoided her for years, but now, everything I once felt comes flooding back. The feelings I pushed so deep down into the depths of my soul, switching everything off when it came toher.
But now here she was. Wrapped in a designer dress and heels, her hair curly and wild. Make-up smudged down her face and when she looks up, her eyes cut to mine and everything in me freezes. My heart stops beating for a minute, my blood stops thrashing through my veins and the once loud thumping in my ears turns into deathly silence.
For just a minute.
Gazes locked; her pretty face is flushed with humiliation. I swallow down the apple sized lump that is lodged in my throat, thickness growing. I watch as Austin wraps his arms around her and only then, when her hazel eyes are off mine, can I breathe. My heart pumps a little harder, a little faster like a steam train in my chest. My blood floods through my veins, riptides forming deep within my bloodstream and the silence that once consumed me is replaced by a hundred drums, banging inside of my ears.
Blue comes rushing out, running towards her daughter and whilst they’re consumed in each other I turn to look at Buck who gives me a knowing look before his hard exterior moves to his daughter.
I can’t do this.
I won’t do this.
I allow myself one last look, scoffing then kicking my boots across the dust as I take my wounded self back home.
Aspen Warren was back in Lovelock Bay.
Home.
CHAPTERTHREE
ASPEN
Istartle myself awake and sit up too quickly. It takes me a moment to realize that I am back in my childhood bedroom as I turn to look over my shoulder and out the window to see dusk starting to set in.
Damn.
My neck felt stiff, my hair is still damp and wrapped in my towel on the top of my head and I feel as if I have been hit by a bus. I scrub my face feeling irritated with myself suddenly. My arm falls and hits the bed and I puff my cheeks out, then slowly release the breath I had been holding.
Reluctantly, I pull myself up and let the towel around my body fall to my waist. Leaning across, I grab the white tee my mum had left out for me and pull it over my head. Standing, I hold the towel around my waist and move towards my drawers to find some panties. Letting the towel fall at my feet, I slip my panties up and then move towards the bed and tug on my light wash denim Levi’s. They swing round my waist, and I drop my head down to look at them. These used to fit snug, but I suppose eating clean with Luke helped me shift some unwanted weight without me even realising.
