Nora gives me a look that clearly says she’s not buying it. “Sure, he was. That’s why he looked like he wanted to commit actual homicide when Brad Patterson asked you to dance.”
I remember that night. I remember Jesse cutting in after one song, his hand warm and steady on my back as he guided me away from Brad and toward the bonfire. I remember thinking he was being overprotective and annoying. Now I wonder if there was more to it. Did he like me back then, when I was quietly pining over him?
“Anyway,” Nora continues, turning onto the main road toward town. “Enough about ancient history. How are you feeling about being back?”
“Honestly? I’m not sure. It’s weird being in my old room, seeing everything exactly the same. Part of me expected things to change more, you know?”
“Time moves differently here,” she says, and there’s wisdom in her voice that I’d forgotten about. Nora always was the philosophical one. “But you’ve changed. I can see it more now that you’re back in Grizzly River. It wasn’t so apparent when I visited you in Chicago.”
“How?”
She’s quiet for a moment, considering. “You’re more…polished, I guess. Like you’ve learned how to hide parts of yourself. The Aubree I knew wore her heart on her sleeve.”
Her words hit uncomfortably close to home. “Maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe I needed to learn how to protect myself.”
“Maybe. Or maybe you just got hurt and learned to build walls.”
She knows more about what happened than anyone else.
I turn to look out the window at the passing landscape—fields of corn and wheat, the occasional farmhouse, cattle dotting the pastures like brown and black specks against the green. It’s peaceful in a way Chicago never was, but it also feels confining,like the whole world could be contained within these county lines.
“So where are we going?” I ask, deflecting from her too-accurate observations.
“My place. I have an apartment above the hardware store in Grizzly River now. It’s tiny, but it’s mine. I thought we could grab lunch at the diner and then catch up properly.”
Grizzly River is barely big enough to be called a town. One main street with a handful of businesses and maybe three hundred people if you’re being generous. But it has charm, with its old brick buildings and tree-lined streets. It’s the kind of place where everyone knows everyone, and secrets are impossible to keep.
The diner looks exactly the same as it did in high school, complete with red vinyl booths and a black-and-white checkered floor that’s probably older than both of us. Marge Henderson is still behind the counter, her gray hair teased high and her apron stained with what looks like gravy.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Marge says when she sees me. “Aubree Weber, as I live and breathe. Heard you were coming home.”
News travels fast in small towns. “Hi, Mrs. Henderson. Good to see you.”
“You too, honey. You look good. City life’s been treating you well.”
If only she knew. “Thank you.”
“What can I get you girls?”
We order—a chicken salad sandwich and sweet tea for me, a burger and fries for Nora—and find a booth in the back where we can talk without the entire diner listening in.
“Okay,” Nora says once Marge has brought our drinks. “Spill. And don’t give me the sanitized version you gave me last time I asked. I want the real story of why you’re back.”
I take a sip of sweet tea, buying myself time. It’s perfect, exactly the right balance of sweet and bitter, nothing like the fancy drinks I’ve gotten used to in Chicago.
“My life imploded,” I say finally.
“How so?”
“Remember how I always said I wanted to work in marketing? Have a career, be independent, all that?”
She nods.
“Well, I got what I wanted. You and I never really talked about it, but the job I had? It was great. I had a nice apartment, friends. I thought I was living the dream.”
“But?”
“But the man I told you I was completely in love with? The one I was seeing, and I was so excited about?”
