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With each passing day, it seemed it would.
* * *
“The official term is rustic charm,”Lee Hanes said as his husband came up beside him, pulling him into a tight hug. “Rustic chic,” Dane argued, and we all laughed.
“Whatever it is, I love it!” Mayor Gains said, typing away on her cell as she walked down Main Street. Over the past few months, the town upgrades had finished—just in time for Christmas. Our town had a ton of tourists traveling up here around the holidays for the skiing and snowy mountain experience.
I had helped ten different residences transition their guest homes or basements to rentals, so they could have a way to create extra income. We also had drummed up different festival ideas that would be specific to Macon. The people from the mountain that had normally kept to themselves started frequenting the town more often, and even started donating to different charity events.
It was the happiest and most excited I had seen the people of Macon, and that included my grumpy boyfriend. He had started attending online therapy sessions and meeting with my dad once a week to talk about Timothy, to remember him. While there were some rough days and even harder nights that we had to work through, he was starting to turn a corner with his pain regarding his brother. There was a long way to go, and I knew it would require dedication, patience, and love, all of which I had to give. I helped and supported him as much as I could, and in turn, he’d show me how much he appreciated me with little gifts, like a brand-new Jeep to drive home during the winter. Or a new standing desk to work at, a new laptop, and tablet. I told him he had to stop, but he enjoyed spoiling me, so I just accepted them.
But what I loved more than anything was our home. There were little upgrades we added that made it feel like ours, and with Christmas coming, we were headed up the mountain to track down a tree. I was beyond excited, especially because the tree excursion would include a few people from town. My parents, of course; Nora, Gavin, his girlfriend Tiffany, and as requested by Davis, Colson Hanes.
I hadn’t told Nora yet, and I wasn’t sure how to even bring it up. For two months the two neighbors seemed to be at war with one another, and it got so bad that one night she even went back to her parents’ house, just to avoid going to jail.
I tried to explain this to my boyfriend, but he didn’t seem to care. He said that Colson was his friend, and he wanted to start cultivating healthy friendships and start branching away from the mountain, and for that, I couldn’t begrudge him. It was something his therapist had encouraged.
Tonight, however, I was excited because Davis wanted to take me on a date to celebrate all the success of our little town renovation. It was just as much his to celebrate as it was mine, considering he’d donated materials and labor in finishing the signs and fixtures for all the store fronts, so there was a matching aesthetic theme of rustic charm throughout Macon.
I hurried to my parents’ house, since it wouldn’t make sense to go all the way home to change before dinner. There, I showered, did my hair and makeup and waited for Davis to text me where to meet him.
I had been waiting nearly half an hour, toying with one of my mother’s puzzles, when there was a knock at the door. Swinging it open, I saw that the stoop was empty. I stared at the doormat, and then the door, spying a folded piece of paper taped to the wood.
Tugging it free, I closed out the cold air and flipped open the note.
Meet me at six thirty, in the library. I have something I need to show you- Love, Davis
That was odd. He’d already finished up the library as far as I knew, but maybe he found something that would need more attention.
A tiny thrill still ran through me at his delivery method. Why not text me that he needed to meet me, unless he was just trying to be funny? He’d started to do more of that lately with his therapy sessions, too—more jokes, more pranks, more laughter.
I loved it.
Dressed in a short black dress, with a warm overcoat and sexy black heels, I navigated the snow and ice pathetically slowly while entering the library. I had been back dozens of times, but going in the dark definitely sent a zing up my spine as that one terrible memory surfaced.
I pushed it down as best as I could as I walked along the newly exposed wood floors, careful not to trip on my way. The lights were out, save for a few in the back. It felt eerily similar, which I wasn’t loving.
My heart rioted in my chest that we were allowing this, and my fight or flight instincts were screaming at me to get out, that this scenario had hurt us before, but I trusted Davis.
Implicitly.
Finally, rounding the last row of books, I found the man in question in the exact same spot I did that night, save for the table. It had been swapped, from the looks of it—thank God. He wore a dark suit, which accented his fresh haircut and clean jawline. The way his eyes heated as he took me in nearly broke me. It felt the same as seeing him that night, but now it was me he was feasting on.
“I felt something that night, you know. It was like a jolt of electricity through my breastbone.” He pointed at his chest, and I finally realized there were candles and flowers on the table, along with two empty dinner plates and a brown bag, which probably contained our dinner.
I set my bag down and shrugged out of my coat as my heart twisted in my chest, like a leaf in the wind.
“As soon as you left that night, I stopped with”—he paused, twisting his lips—“that person…and I didn’t even know why.”
He stepped closer, and the knowledge that he hadn’t continued to fuck that girl after he saw me was a tiny balm to a rather large scar.
“I couldn’t get that look in your eyes out of my head, or the way you looked at me, like I was yours and I was being unfaithful. I know that sounds crazy, but it’s what I felt. It messed with me. Then you up and disappeared. I looked for you, hoping you were okay, worried about you.”
He stepped even closer. The storm in his eyes wasn’t raging tonight; it was just a nice calm navy blue—the color of the sea at night.
“I think you knew I was always supposed to be yours, Raelyn Jackson. I think you knew all along that we’d be here someday.” He was toe to toe with me now. “I think you knew there was no way once I started flirting with you that you’d be able to resist me.”
I laughed, shoving at his chest.
