“Hey, you. I hear you’re entering the world of the workin’. You sure you wanna do that already?”
“Yes! I’msoexcited. Thank you for helpin’ me. Will and Mac gave me some ideas, but I really wanna know what you think. I want everything to beperfectand don’t wanna mess it up.”
“You’re gonna do great. Don’t stress. There’s nothing to be nervous about. Aubrey and Nathan are awesome, and their kids are pretty great, too.”
After filling in her niece on what she figured would be sure to win her Babysitter of the Year, Nat made Ava promise to call her after the big night and tell her all about it.
While it was true that Nat had been gone from Havenbrook a long time, there were moments like this, when her whole ecosystem was going on without her, that she started to feel just a little bit homesick for the place she no longer thought of as home.
Before too long, that tinge of melancholy was overridden by a wave of excitement as ideas for her upcoming shoot fired in rapid succession in her mind. Proving, once again, that leaving Havenbrook in the rearview mirror was the best decision she ever could have made.
* * *
Nat wokein the middle of the night to Asher’s ringtone. As always, it took her a minute to remember where she was—Iruya, Argentina—and adjust to her surroundings. Blindly, she fumbled for her phone on the nightstand and cracked open one eye to glance at the time. It was 4:26 a.m. where she was, which meant almost 2:30 in Nashville.
Middle-of-the-night calls weren’t anything new for her and Asher. With their lifestyles, they were pretty much a prerequisite, seeing as he often didn’t get home until three in the morning or later when he had a gig, and she was almost certainly in another time zone, if not halfway around the world. That meant finding time to connect was challenging, so exceptions had to be made.
“Don’t tell me you’re nervous about that meetin’ with the label tomorrow,” Nat mumbled, her voice scratchy from disuse.
“Nat…”
At the mere sound of Asher’s voice, she jolted up in bed, her senses on high alert. She’d known this man for over twenty years, and, as such, she knew his every tone. Knew how he sounded when he was excited, when he was exhausted…when he was nervous or indifferent or stressed. Knew his mad voice, his apprehensive voice, his cynical voice.
She’d never heard him sound like this.
“What’s wrong?” Her heart seized, and she could barely choke out her next words. “Is it Nash? Is he okay?”
Nash had been her best friend since their first day of preschool. The two of them had been inseparable since then, and when Asher moved to town in first grade, the two took him into their fold—actually, more accurately, Nat informed Asher he didn’t have a choice but to be their friend because their names were all so similar. And from that moment on, it’d been the three of them against the world.
“No, it’s—” He broke off before clearing his throat, his voice still rough and low. Weak. “It’s my sister.”
“Aubrey?” Nat didn’t know if it was the hour, or that she had been woken from a dead sleep, or that she’d been running on nothing more than adrenaline and coffee for days while she’d been here, but none of this was making any sense. A brief memory of Ava calling to ask about June and Owen flickered in her mind. That was right—Ava had been scheduled to babysit. Was that last night? Days got all jumbled and tended to run into each other whenever she was traveling.
“There was an accident,” Asher said, his tone all wrong. “Sheriff Halsey called ’cause I’m Aubrey’s emergency contact. She must’ve listed me after Dad and Momma died. Even if I don’t live in Havenbrook anymore, I’m the closest…”
“Wait, just slow down. I don’t understand. The closest for what?”
“I need to get there. June and Owen…your sister’s stayin’ with them for now, but they’re gonna be so scared when they wake up and their parents—” Asher’s voice cracked on the last word, and Nat felt the urge to go to him as clearly as if there were a string as strong as steel tied to them both, tugging her back. “I’m packin’ a bag, and then I’ve gotta go. I’m sorry. I know it’s late. I just needed to call you.” His voice was watery, and there was no denying his tears now.
With every word he spoke, Nat’s stomach sank more and more, the situation crystallizing in a way she desperately wished were a dream. A call from the sheriff. An accident. June and Owen being scared…
Realization settled deep in her gut at the same time Asher uttered a broken, “She’s gone, Nattie. Aubrey’s gone.”
Throwing back the covers, Nat leaped out of bed, her phone clutched in her hand as she listened to Asher’s near-silent cries on the other end. She didn’t say anything. What could she? Her words would be nothing but empty platitudes that wouldn’t help fill the void he was suddenly facing. So instead, she allowed him to unleash his grief without interruption and took his pain into herself, wishing she could bear this for him.
With Asher’s cries filling the empty air as she clutched the phone between her ear and shoulder, she was a tornado whipping through her room, gathering random items strewn here and there. After tossing all the clothes she could find into her suitcase, she gathered her toiletries from the tiny bathroom sink and then dumped them in, too.
In all the years she’d been traveling, she’d never once resented being so far away—not even when she’d gotten the call about her daddy’s heart attack. Somewhere, deep down, she’d known the man was too stubborn to die and she would get home with plenty of time to yell at the jackass for being so careless with his health. But this…now? Listening as the other half of her soul’s heart shattered into a thousand tiny pieces, she’d never been more frustrated than she was now.
She mentally calculated how long it’d take her to get to Mississippi from the remote town she was currently in that wasn’t easy to get to even with extensive planning. First, she’d have to drive six hours to the nearest big enough airport, then hope she could get an immediate flight out. Best-case scenario, she was looking at a solid twenty-four hours before she’d be in Havenbrook. Worst-case? It could be three or more days.
Regardless, it didn’t matter. If she had to max out all her credit cards…hell, even if she had to call her daddy and beg him for money—something she’d never once done in all the time she’d been on her own—she’d do either in a heartbeat if it’d get her to Asher quicker.
“I’m comin’, Ash,” she said, her voice firm thanks only to her resolve. “Just hang on a little while. I’m comin’ home.”
Asher McCoy could say without a doubt that this wasn’t what he expected his life to look like. Three days ago, he’d been a twenty-seven-year-old musician making a living from his music and on the verge of his big break. He’d had a meeting scheduled with a record label to discuss signing on with them after a recent video of him at The Bluebird Cafe went viral. His life consisted of late-night gigs, some overzealous fans, and spontaneity.
In the blink of an eye, that had changed.
