by Chelle Bliss
fingers. “What if they show up there?”
“They’re not home.” She glances up with a smirk. “They actually went camping, so I figured it was the perfect cover.”
I pull her body closer to mine. “I can’t believe I have you for the entire night.”
“Someday we won’t have to sneak around, Jack.”
Staring at the heart she’s just drawn on the wall, I kiss her forehead and smile. “I can’t wait to have you all to myself.”
“Forever and ever.”
“Love you, Evie girl,” I say to her as she drifts off to sleep in my arms.
“Lemonade’s here,” Ma announces as she walks inside, startling me.
I climb down the rickety old ladder, and she’s waiting for me with a tray of cookies and an entire pitcher of ice-cold homemade lemonade.
We’re halfway done with our first glass when Myra finally makes her grand entrance. I’m pissed she slept in, and from the looks of the barn, she hasn’t been helping out at all.
She plops down next to me and grabs a cookie off the tray. “Good morning, family.”
I give her a sideways glance. “Finally awake, princess?”
“Barely.” She takes a bite of the cookie and flips her hair over her shoulder.
I tighten my fist, trying to control my aggravation with my little sister, but I can’t contain my frustration. “What the hell, Myra? Why haven’t you been helping Ma?”
Bored by my little speech, she picks at her jet-black fingernail polish and flicks the chips toward me. “I don’t do manual labor, Jack. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a woman now.”
“So is Ma, but you don’t see her sitting on her ass.”
“It’s fine,” Ma deflects and waves off my comment.
“This is bullshit.” Myra shouldn’t be allowed to pull the woman card out when it suits her. A little hard work never hurt anybody, especially a goddamn teenager. “Don’t let her off the hook that easy. She gets away with way too much.”
“Farm life isn’t for everyone,” Myra says and narrows her eyes, knowing damn well I’m about to pop my lid. “Cranky because of Evie?” She pushes my buttons because no one knows them better than a little sister.
“No,” I say a little too quickly.
She went there. I shouldn’t be surprised. Myra has always been wicked. If you’d hit her, she’d knock your ass down out of spite. If she had been born a boy, the entire world would have been in trouble.
“Mm-hmm. I saw her yesterday after you left.” Her fingers brush at the corner of her mouth, wiping away stray crumbs. The shit-eating grin she flashes over the brim of her lemonade doesn’t go unnoticed by me like it does Ma.
She’s taunting me, trying to get me off the subject of her laziness. She’s a pro, but I don’t take the bait. “Doesn’t matter. Go change your clothes, and get your ass out here to help.” I push her legs, forcing her body off the crate.
Myra flips me off before she walks out, heading toward the main house. Skipping away, she’s singing, “Jack and Evie sitting in a tree.”
This is going to be a long day. I guzzle down the rest of the lemonade before I head back to the loft to throw some more old shit around and blow off a little steam.
* * *
“Jack! Wait up.” Jason starts to jog in my direction. He’s wearing a pale yellow dress shirt and brown tie, looking every bit the high school counselor.
We’d been best friends since kindergarten, but we drifted apart after I went away to Penn State and he enrolled at UCLA.
It was like he fell off the face of the earth and vanished for years. I found out a few months ago that he came back to Ridge Hollow and was hired at the high school as a counselor.
“What’s up, bud?” I stop near the entrance to the general store and wait for him. “I was just about to text you to grab a beer.”
“I saw the video,” he says, trying to catch his breath.
“Fuck,” I groan. I scrub my hands down my face. The entire town has seen the video by now. “Don’t start.”
“Did it blow your mind seeing her again?” His forest-green eyes are glittering with excitement.
“I don’t know how I feel,” I confide in him.
Jason knows everything about Evie. He was by my side during the entire relationship, and he made me get back out there after it ended. He refused to let me wallow in self-pity and sadness when Evie broke my heart.
“Want to get a drink and talk about it?”
“You mean drown my emotions at the bottom of a bottle?”
It wouldn’t help a damn thing, but after the last few days, I could use a drink to mask some of the pain. The absence of Evie in my life is heavy on my mind and heart.
“Yep. Why the hell not?”
“Sounds like the perfect way to spend a night.”
“I’ll meet you at the Rusty Nail later. I have to grab a few things and drop them off for my mom.”
“I’ll see you there, man.”
Jason walks back to the other side of the street, and I’m not even in the general store thirty seconds when Mrs. Griffin starts yapping. “I saw Evie today.”
“Yeah.” I’m trying to play it cool. I wander toward the back of the store and out of the watchful and nosy eyes of Mrs. Griffin.
She’s always been a busybody. It doesn’t help that she runs the general store either. If you need medicine, she knows what ails you. If you need birth control, she knows you’re getting laid. If you buy a pregnancy test, you better not even try to keep it a secret. Besides being the owner, she is the town gossip. They go hand in hand and have always annoyed the hell out of me.
“You need any help back there?” Mrs. Griffin yells across the store.
“I got it.” I grab the last item on my mom’s list. “Nosy bitch,” I mutter under my breath.
“What was that?”
“Nothing,” I snap louder than intended.
If I passed Mrs. Griffin on the street without knowing her, I’d think she was the sweetest old lady. Her curly gray hair and funky red glasses partnered with her polka-dot dresses make her look a tad eccentric, but completely harmless.
But to know her…is to hate her.
I head straight to the register, ready to get out of here before Mrs. Griffin sticks her nose where it doesn’t belong again. I’m ready for her shit-talking as I unload the ten or so items I grabbed.
She reads each price sticker aloud as she uses one finger to punch in the numbers on her archaic cash register. She slowly lowers each item in the bag, looking at me from under her lashes as she reaches for the next. “So, what have you been up to? It’s been years since you’ve stayed this long.”
“Just visiting my mom and sister,” I answer, knowing she already knows why I am here. I run my hand over my head and let out a sigh, eager to get the hell out of here.
The bitch knows everything about every-damn-body in this town. She’s made it her life’s mission. She probably knows what I had for dinner last night too.
The lines around her lips become more visible when she purses them. “Is something wrong?”
“No, Mrs. Griffin.” My teeth are clenched tightly together as I try to avoid shooting off at the mouth. She’d be on the phone to my mom before my ass even walked out the door if I did.
“Keep the change,” I tell her, tossing a fifty on the counter before grabbing the bag and leaving. That woman is insufferable. I don’t think anyone truly likes her.
“Jack?”
The sound of that voice makes my body recoil; she grates on my nerves. Even after all these years, her voice is worse than fingernails on a chalkboard. I turn to face her, and I’m shocked that she doesn’t look anything like the girl I knew in high school. “Renee?”
Her eyes travel up my body slowly, too slowly for my liking. “Damn,” she says before whistling. “What happened to you? You’re all big and shit.” She reaches out, wrapping her hand around my bicep.
“I work out.” I start to inch bac
kward because I have nothing to say to her. I have never liked her. Evie was always best friends with her, and I never could understand why.
“I might need a good workout soon too. Maybe you can help me.” She winks.
It takes everything in me not to gag. “I won’t be around for that long,” I lie. I should tell her that her ass could use a lot of miles on the treadmill, but I refrain. Knowing her, she would try to take it as me flirting with her.
“That’s a shame.” Her eyes sweep across my shoulders. “You look like you could give me a real good workout.”
She’s still as classless and rude as she was back in high school. “It was nice to see you again, Renee,” I spit out, being kinder than she deserves.
“Did you see Evie?” she asks before I have a chance to turn my back, but she already knows the answer. She wouldn’t ask unless she knew. That’s the type of person she is…an asshole.
“I did.”
She steps closer, glancing around before whispering, “Are you mad at her?”
“No,” I deadpan, ready for this conversation to be over. I don’t want to discuss Evie with her. I don’t want to speak to her at all.
“I would be if I were you. I mean, if she…”
Her words knock me back. What would I have to be mad at Evie about? Besides the obvious that she moved away, and time and distance tore us apart. Renee’s trying to imply that there was something more, but I’m not taking the bait.
“Jack? Dude, is that you?” Jess walks up from behind Renee, fifty pounds heavier with a full beard, wearing the ugliest flannel shirt I’ve ever seen. My favorite part of the new Jess look is his mullet that fits him to a T.
“Jess?”
“Hell yeah.” He holds out his hand, wearing the biggest smile. “Dude.”
“Look at you,” I say while I shake his hand, because I don’t know what else to say to him. I never liked him all that much, but I always felt a bit sorry for him because he was so into Renee. Looks like some things never change.
“Yeah, and look at you too.”
He wraps his arm around Renee’s shoulder. “We’re still together after all these years.” He smirks when Renee places her hand on his stomach and snuggles against him, putting on a full display of gag-reflex-inducing affection. “Tied the knot and everything.” He says it like he is so proud. Renee damn sure isn’t any prize.
He made sure to get the dig in about still being together since Evie and I are not. It was always a competition with us, and they have clearly won.
How the hell am I supposed to respond to that kind of an asshole statement?
Good job, man. Way to go.
I say nothing, hoping they will move on.
“Hey.” Jess glances down at Renee and back at me. “We should have Jack over for dinner while he’s in town. We could catch up. It’s been way too long.”
I’m thinking it hasn’t been long enough, but I don’t tell him that.
“That’s a great idea, honey.” Renee smiles at me. “We’d love to have you.”
There’s no way in hell I’m going to their house. I don’t need to be reminded how they survived while Evie and I crumbled to pieces. “Yeah. Maybe sometime next week. I gotta run, though.”
“Tell your mom hi,” Jess says, pulling Renee closer.
“Sure,” I call over my shoulder with no intentions of mentioning it.
“Fuckin’ Jack Nelson. Can you believe it, baby?”
“He looks so different,” she says to him before I can get far enough away not to overhear their conversation.
“Yeah, but I bet he isn’t as happy as us.” He chuckles.
“Asshats,” I mumble to myself before tossing the bag in my truck. I should have guessed those two would stick it out and never leave this place. Who else would have either of them?
Growing up, Evie and I always called the town Sleepy Hollow and dreamed of moving away. I wasn’t willing to spend eternity surrounded by the same ten stores, one main road, and a bunch of town gossips like Mrs. Griffin without Evie at my side. I wanted more. Without Evie, there was nothing here for me. I had no reason to stay.
But now, she’s back, and so am I.
8
Evie
“Are you ready to go to the cemetery?” Evan asks while checking his email as I pour myself a cup of coffee.
“We’ll go later before they close.”
“Evie,” he warns.
“Don’t start with me, Evan. It’s been a trying couple of days. I need to do something first.”
I need to do anything but what I came here for.
I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready to go back there, but I know I have to go to the cemetery and have my father’s ashes placed next to my mother’s.
We’ve been in town a week, and I’ve put it off every time he asks. I haven’t been able to find the courage or the strength to go, even with his constant pestering.
It’s too hard.
It stirs up too much pain.
It brings back a time in my life I wish I could forget, but I can’t. I’m marked by it. What happened shaped me and changed who I was and made me who I am now.
“I won’t let you forget.”
As if I need a reminder.
I sigh loudly just like Evan usually does. “I know. It’ll get done today.”
I wish he’d drop it. I’ll do it when I’m ready, which may be never.
“If we’re not there by three, I’m dragging you there by that beautiful blond hair of yours.”
I stick out my tongue at him. He’s so damn bossy sometimes, even when it’s for my own good. He knows I’m dreading going there. He knows what it means to me, and it never gets any easier.
“I feel like a hike. Want to come?” I ask, trying to change the subject.
“Sure. I’d love to.”
I gawk at him, blinking a few times. Evan hates the outdoors. He’s more of the sit in a bar and look pretty type. “You really want to come?”
“I think I need to stay close to you today.”
I blink again and cross my arms over my chest. “Why?”
He shrugs and sets down his cappuccino. “Figure I’ll get into trouble otherwise.”
“You always cause trouble.” I laugh softly.
“If you don’t want me to come, I can probably go hang out with Renee today.” His expression is so serious I want to punch him.
“Don’t you dare.”
He gives me a mischievous smile, but I know he’s only joking.