It’s entirely possible I am completely out of my mind.
“That’s it.” I scrub a hand down my face. “I’m out of my mind.”
I up andleftmy entirelifein order to, what? Be asubstitute teacher? Back inBlue Ridge?
Even my internal monologue goes shrill at the name of my hometown.
When I left fourteen years ago, I thought it was for good. But I can’t afford to go the rest of the school year without work, and apparently Blue Ridge is the only place in the universe that’ll hire me. There’s literally nowhere else to go.
And now that I’m here, I wonder whatthesepeople will say about me. I know all too well Blue Ridge is no safe haven, just as gossip-hungry as the parents of Everett Academy.
Especially when it comes to my family.
My stomach is in knots. What am I going to tell the principal here about why I left Everett Academy? I can just picture the news spreading like wildfire.Did you hear? Brie Casey is back with her tail between her legs.
Rubbing my palms into my eyes, I groan. Maybe it won’t be so bad. Blue Ridge looked different as I drove through the sleepy streets to get here. Revitalized and shiny.
I open the visor to check myself in the mirror.
Greasy hair, circles under my eyes, and chapped lips.Cool cool cool.
But there’s no way I can unearth my toiletries bag without being late. Not with the contents of my entire apartment stuffed into my car.
Turning off the car, I brace myself against the cold and march to the double doors.
My feet already know the way to the mainoffice. So much so that I barely pay attention as I trudge down the linoleum and cinderblock halls.
So much so that Ialmostdon’t register the nameplate outside the inner office as I knock on the open door.
No.
Every muscle in my body tightens. My heart plummets through the ground, into the depths of the earth—no—hell.
I really thought being back in Blue Ridge was the worst thing to happen to me.
But there he is, staring right at me, sitting behind the principal’s desk like it’s the Iron Throne.
Sawyer Strong.
The Prince of Blue Ridge, and the bane of my entire childhood.
I’m numb.
And he’s even better looking than the last time I saw him fourteen years ago.
Sawyer was always big, the way high school jocks are, but now he’s broad. Solid.
And those deep blue eyes bore straight into my skull.
His thick hair is styled back except for one careless strand that falls forward over his temple. His face is serious and familiar, but undeniably manly now with dense stubble that does nothing to hide his severe jawline.
This has to be a nightmare. Maybe I fell asleep on the drive down, crashed, and am blissfully in a hospital bed somewhere in Kentucky.
Please let me be in a coma.
I bite my lip hard enough to make it sting, like an idiot who watches too much TV.
Nope. Definitely conscious.
