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He’s still standing there. Still watching.
For a moment, it feels like we fell back through time, and I’m that seventeen-year-old girl again.
“Who was that?” Mom asks, breaking me out of my thoughts.
That knot in my throat becomes more prominent, but I force my hand to put the car in drive and slowly pull away. “Nobody.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
MIGUEL
“We found her,” I say in the way of greeting as soon as the call connects.
“Fucking finally,” Emmett lets out a long breath in relief. I’m glad that he could breathe because my chest still felt too small for my lungs to fully expand so I could inhale. “Is she okay?”
“Define okay,” I murmur, my vision still set on the small dot that’s Rebecca’s truck driving away from me.
Silence falls on the other side of the line, that irritation I’ve been pushing back since the moment she told me what was going on coming out in full force.
My fingers clench around the phone. “How long did you know?”
“I found out when we got back. It was totally random. I was stopping by her house one day to bring her something. We were chatting in the foyer for a minute when her mom came to look for her, but when I greeted her and asked how she was doing, she just stared at me blankly as if she didn’t know me at all. I didn’t know what to make of it. Her mom started to get upset, so Becky ushered her toward the living room, and later on, shefinally admitted that she had Alzheimer’s. Apparently, the whole thing has been going on for a while.”
A few weeks. He’s only known for a few weeks.
I know hearing this shouldn’t make me feel relieved, but it did. I wasn’t the only one Rebecca excluded. She did it to both of us.
“A while?”
“Yeah, not that I was surprised that she kept it quiet,” Emmett sighs. “You know how stubborn she can be. I tried getting more info from her, but her lips were sealed shut. At least she hired some help, and Chase is back.”
“Chase is back?” I haven’t seen Rebecca’s older brother in years. Since he joined the military back when we were just freshmen in high school. He rarely got home, and Rebecca barely mentioned him. I remember how devastated, heartbroken, and scared she was when he left Bluebonnet. Those first few days after he left, she was like a ghost. Almost like she was when she lost her dad. Just a shell of the girl I knew. But now he was back. “Like on leave?”
“No, Chase is back for good. He was injured during his last deployment and…”
Somebody yells his name in the background.
“Coming!” Emmett shouts back, his voice slightly muffled like he removed the phone from his ear. “Listen, they need me. Thanks for letting me know you guys found her.”
“Yeah, sure. Talk soon?”
We say our goodbyes, and I hang up the phone, running my free hand over my face. I let it drop by my side as I start jogging toward the high school, where I left my car earlier, my thoughts still on Rebecca.
Her mom has Alzheimer’s, and now her brother is back from the war because he’s been injured.
And I had no clue about any of it.
Guilt starts gnawing at me from the inside out. I should have been there. I should have held her hand when she found out and reassured her everything would be okay. I should have—
Nothing. You should have done nothing. She’s not yours to have.
My gaze darts toward the football field. The last of the sun’s rays are slowly disappearing behind the horizon. How many days have I spent out here? Too many to count. The football field was my safe space, my home. And Rebecca? She was a part of my home, too.
Five years ago
“I knew I’d find you here.”
My head snaps up at the sound of the soft voice, my eyes landing on the only woman who’s ever been able to make my heart stop beating, and this time is no exception.
