TRUTH IN THE TOOLBOX
KENNA-PRESENT
Cole leftmy house early this morning to meet up with Harris at the hardware store to go over the last details of working at the hardware store. He didn’t want to leave me this morning, but I practically pushed him out of bed knowing how much the store means to him—how much it’s meant to him since high school.
The afternoon sunlight pours through the windows, casting a warm glow over the kitchen as I quickly finish up my coffee. I’m getting ready to head out and pick up Cohen from my parents’ house, but before I do, there’s one more thing I need to do. I still can’t shake the conversation I had with Millie when we were younger, when she mentioned how Cole and I have something special. Something neither of us had ever truly admitted aloud. I’ve been thinking about it all day, and I need to talk to her again.
So, I grab my purse and head out the door, the drive to Beanstalk feeling both familiar and foreign at the same time.
The engine hums beneath me, but my mind is a chaotic storm. I replay Millie’s words over and over, like a broken record. ‘You and Cole have something rare.’ Rare. That word felt like a lifeline. But what does that mean for me? For Cohen? For the fragile hope I’ve been clinging to?
What if I’m just fooling myself? What if it’s never going to be like before? Or maybe it never was, not really? But then why does it still feel like home when he’s near? I grip the steering wheel tighter. The edges biting into my palms. I want to believe in us, but fear lurks just beneath the surface, whispering all the reasons it can’t work.
The café is busy when I walk in, with the usual chatter and scent of coffee filling the air. It’s a comforting scene, and it gives me a small sense of peace as I make my way to the back. Millie is behind the counter, looking so much more pregnant than the last time I saw her. I can’t help but smile at her, her belly getting round and glowing, and she grins right back at me.
“Kenna!” she says, wiping her hands on a towel before pulling me into a quick hug. “You look good. How’ve you been?”
“I’ve been alright,” I reply, leaning against the counter. “I just needed to stop by and talk to you for a second. You got a minute?”
Millie’s smile softens as she looks at me. “Of course. What’s up?”
I hesitate for a moment, not sure how to bring it up, but I know I can’t leave this conversation hanging in the air any longer. “Did you mean it? The day we were in the kitchen, you said that Cole and I had something special.” I meet her gaze, feeling my heart pick up pace in my chest. “Do you really think that? I spent the entire day with him yesterday, and it was like nothing had changed. It felt so easy, Millie. Like we were just...the same as we always were. Like I never left.”
Millie watches me carefully, her expression soft but intense. “I still believe that,” she says slowly, her voice gentle but firm. “What you two have? It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. There’s a depth to it that’s hard to explain, Kenna. You’re connected in a way that’s rare. People don’t just let that go.”
I swallow hard, the lump in my throat growing. “But what if it’s just nostalgia? What if I’m holding on to something that’salready gone? I want to believe in us, Millie, but what if I’m setting myself up for heartbreak?”
Her eyes soften even more, like she’s trying to reach inside me and hold all the broken pieces. “I get it. I really do. But sometimes, the things that scare us the most are exactly the things we need. You’ve been running from this for so long, Kenna. Maybe it’s time to stop running.”
Her words strike a chord deep inside me, like a quiet echo I’d been trying to ignore. How many times had I buried this feeling? The truth was stubborn—persistent—and now it was clawing its way to the surface.
I’ve spent so long convincing myself that it’s easier this way. Easier to pretend we’re just two people who once knew each other. But what if I’m wrong? What if what Millie says is true? That what Cole and I have isn’t just nostalgia or comfort—it’s something real?
Her words hit me hard, and a part of me feels like I’m hearing them for the first time. All the emotions that have been swirling inside me since I ran into Cole again, since we’ve started spending time together, suddenly make sense. I want to believe it. I want to believe we can fix everything. But...there’s still so much I haven’t told him.
“I want to believe that too,” I say, my voice quiet, almost to myself. “But there’s something else I’ve been holding back. Something I don’t know if I can keep hiding. It’s...it’s about Cohen. About Cole.”
Millie’s eyes sharpen, and she steps closer to me, her hand gently resting on mine. “What is it, Kenna?” she asks softly, but with a knowing look in her eyes, like she already knows where this is going.
I swallow hard, my throat tight. The weight of the secret I’ve kept for so long feels heavier now than it ever has before. “Millie, if this second chance with Cole is going to work, I have to tell him the truth. I have to tell him he’s Cohen’s father.”
Her expression doesn’t change, but I can see her nodding,understanding what I’m saying. “Yeah,” she murmurs, squeezing my hand a little. “None of this is going to work if you don’t tell him that, Kenna. He has a right to know. Cohen’s his son.”
Her grip on my hand steadies me. ‘Right to know.’ Those words settle into my mind, but they also spark a wildfire of fear. What if he doesn’t want to know? What if this destroys what little peace we’ve found?
My chest tightens. I’ve dreamed of this moment, and in every dream, his reaction is different. At times he’s furious. Sometimes he’s heartbroken. Sometimes, just sometimes, he smiles and pulls me close. But dreams aren’t real. This will be real.
I let her words settle into me, feeling like the truth is so close, and yet so terrifying. “I know. I know. But...I don’t know how to say it. I don’t know how to tell him everything that’s happened since he left.”
Millie tilts her head, her eyes sympathetic but steady. “I know it’s hard. But if you want Cole in your life again, if you want him to be part of Cohen’s life...you can’t keep this from him anymore. It’s time, Kenna.”
She’s right. I can feel it deep in my bones. It’s time for me to stop hiding, to stop pretending like I can handle this alone. But God, I don’t know how to bring this up. How to say the words that will change everything between us.
Taking a deep breath, I try to steady myself. “I just—what if he doesn’t want to be part of it? What if he’s angry that I didn’t tell him sooner?” I look down at the counter, suddenly overwhelmed by the weight of it all.
Millie’s voice is soft but firm when she responds. “If you’re being honest with him, and he’s the man I know he is? He’ll come around. It’s going to be hard, yeah, but you’re both better off facing it together. You can’t keep living in the shadows, Kenna.”
I nod, though my stomach churns with doubt. ‘Better off facing it together’—those words are both a promise and a threat to the fragile balance I’ve tried to maintain.
