I breathed in. Out.
But it didn’t steady me.
Not really.
Chapter 12
The Drive Back
Ethan
Lily chose ice cream sandwiches, rainbow popsicles, dinosaur chicken nuggets, and a tub of strawberry ice-cream. I didn’t say no to a single thing.
She held the receipt on the drive home, examining it with the seriousness of an accountant.
“Uncle Ethan,” she said softly, “mom said not to eat so much junk food.”
The past tense sliced through me.
“We can do it just this once, kiddo.”
As we pulled into our driveway, I slowed.
There was a car I didn’t recognize parked along the sidewalk.
It was small, silver, it didn’t draw attention.
A whisper of recognition pulsed through, without knowing what I was recognizing.
My lungs stalled.
Shit.
No, it couldn’t.
Lily unbuckled before I did and dashed toward the house.
I grabbed the bags and followed, but every step felt heavier, like the ground knew something I didn’t want to admit.
???
The grocery bags dug into my fingers as I nudged the front door open with my shoulder. Lily darted past my leg before I could say a word, her shoes squeaking against the hardwood like she was running from a monster or me. Probably the latter.
I followed slower, the cold of the outside still clinging to my clothes. The drive back from the store hadn’t been long, but my head was a mess. Too much noise inside. Too many emotions I didn’t have names for yet.
And the conversation with June Rivers, the sheriff now, not the babysitter who used to let us eat cookie dough straight from the bowl, had cracked something open in me I wasn’t prepared for.
I hadn’t expected to feel so…vulnerable.
My boots thudded softly against the entryway as I dropped the bags onto the counter.
Then I heard her voice.
Soft. Familiar. A sound that had lived in a locked drawer in my chest for years, untouched.
Claire.
The air in the kitchen shifted before I even saw her, something warm and steady, something scented like vanilla and chalk dust and the hint of rain. Something that still reminded me of home.
