Page 3 of The Scars We Heal

“Hi, Whitley!” Mom cooed, pulling my daughter into her arms.

Whitley squeezed her tight, answering my mom’s short questions about how she was doing, then I led her into my mom’s house so she could use the bathroom. Once we were done, we said our goodbyes with a parting wave. After I climbed into my car, my shoulders immediately slumped.

Time for plan B, I guess.

Once again, tears threatened to fall, but I wouldn’t allow myself to cry. Not yet.

I could cry when Whitley was taken care of, when she had a warm bed to sleep in and we didn’t have to worry about packing up our things again. I would hold back the tears a little longer, because that was what a good mom was supposed to do.

Right?

After another ten minutes of driving, I knocked on the front door of Colter and Ellison’s house with Whitley at my side. A few seconds passed, although it felt more like hours, before feet shuffled inside the house.

Footsteps approached the front door, and shortly after, the knob rotated. As the door was pulled open, my gaze jumped up, and I made eye contact with the person who answered.

A six-foot-two cowboy wearing a Warden Wrangler’s T-shirt. His blond hair swooped across his forehead, and his clear, blue eyes widened in surprise. It’d been about eight months since I’d last seen him at Thanksgiving, and he’d grown more facial hair in that time. He even had a mustache, although it wasn’t as thick as Mikey’s.

“Caitlin?” Confusion laced itself in his tone, and his brows knitted together.

I lifted my hand in greeting, doing my best to ignore the heat flaring in my cheeks. “Hi, Jake.”

CHAPTER TWO

jake

ELEVEN YEARS AGO

Agroup of voices outside my dorm room caught my attention before the lock clicked and the door opened to a boy around my age.

He took a few steps into the room and extended his hand out to me. “Hi, I’m Colter. I guess I’m your roommate.”

I stood, scootching back my desk chair before meeting him in the center of the room. My palm grasped his in a firm handshake. “Jake.”

Not wanting to just stand there awkwardly, I sat back down at my desk.

A man and woman, who I assumed were Colter’s parents, walked through the door with a big wagon full of stuff.

“Hi there,” the woman greeted me, a bright smile spreading across her cheeks. “I’m Maggie, Colter’s mom. That’s his dad, Chip. You must be his roommate.”

“Yep, that’s me. I’m Jake.”

“Nice to meet you.” She turned to Colter, who had started throwing sheets on top of the bunk across from mine. “Are you sure you don’t want to move it down a little? I worry you might roll off in the middle of the night.”

Instinctually, I looked around at my own setup. My bed was on the highest rung it could go, and I set up my desk underneath it. I also had a mini fridge and a small lounge chair.

The room was small, but I didn’t plan to spend too much time in here.

On the far wall opposite the door was a window, and there were two identical closets on the left- and right-side walls near the entrance. If we moved the bunks back, there would be just enough room to put our desks by the window. Maybe we could set up a couch underneath one of the beds and a TV beneath the other if Colter had those things.

He shook his head, rolling his eyes a little. “Nah, I want to put a futon or something underneath it. Besides, I’ll be fine. There’s a guardrail to prevent me from falling off.”

“Okay, if you’re sure.”

Chip cleared his throat then gestured to the door. “Everything’s out of the car, so I’m going to move it before we get yelled at. Caitlin is standing by it right now, so I’ll send her up to help.”

“Do you have a TV?” Colter asked, as though he was reading my thoughts.

I shook my head. I pretty much had the bare minimum of things, besides the mini fridge. I’d used basically all of what was left of my summer money to buy it. My parents sure as hell weren’t going to give me money for college. Not when they spent it on other things.