Page 41 of Barefoot Lake

Did Reid come back?

“Ace?” My stomach flips when I hear Jake’s voice edged with worry, calling through the door. “Ace? Are you in there?”

I launch myself off the couch and stumble when my legs get caught in the blanket I’d been wrapped in. I’m at the door in seconds and pull it open. Based on the glowing golden-hour light outside, I clearly slept at least several hours.

“Ace.” Jake’s breath leaves him in a rush, and his shoulders visibly lower once he has eyes on me. “You scared me. Are you ok?”

He steps forward, and I back up so he can come inside. I close the door behind him. He scans me from head to toe, but his eyes linger on my left wrist, where Reid had held me. Thankfully the red splotch faded away.

Jake’s words finally process in my muddled brain.

I scared him?

“Jake, I’m so, so sorry. I feel like I’m always apologizing to you, but I really do mean it. I had no clue he was going to come here and cause such a scene⁠—”

I stop when Jake’s hands land on my biceps.

“You cannot blame yourself for the choices made by a bad person,” he says the words slowly and clearly, like he’s trying to make them sink in. “Are you ok?”

I shrug noncommittally and avoid Jake’s eyes.

“Ace…?” he urges. “What was that out there?”

For the first time, I don’t feel the urge to hide what Reid was like. Even though my friendship with Jake is new and tenuous at best, I want to tell him what happened. He saw what Reid was like and chose to defend me. He came back. New friend or not, I trust him.

I look over my shoulder at the couch. Jake takes the hint, releasing me and going to sit down. I follow and sit beside him. I twist my fingers in my lap and look at them rather than Jake, but I start talking about what it was like with Reid.

“He was really good to me when we first met. He acted like I was his whole world, and he wanted to give me everything my heart desired. But things changed when he started working.”

I tell Jake everything. I tell him how Reid excluded me from his work life and regularly left me behind for corporate commitments, even the ones that were optional. It got to the point where I’d be surprised if plans with me weren’t delayed or canceled. I talk about Reid’s mind games, and how he’d twist my concerns until I agreed that it was in my head or my fault or something I should really be grateful for.

Jake stays silent while I go on and on. A couple of times, I glance up at him, and find his eyes on me and his expression blank, but his hands are fisted tightly together between his knees.

I even tell him about the nastier parts — how Reid would take every chance he could to tell me how lucky I was to be with someone like him, someone smart, attractive, and successful. That he put up with my loud mouth and annoying friends like nobody else would. I kept giving more and more to try to be worthy. I made myself small, pliant, and quiet.

It was awful.

Then, I get to our last fight before I left.

“Mom always said funerals were expensive and depressing and that she didn’t want one. Instead, she wanted her ashes spread in the ocean, and a celebration of life wake so her friends could say goodbye together. I took her ashes to the ocean myself and organized something for the people she knew in Boston. I was a mess, and I’m so sorry I didn’t think to invite people from Wilcox Grove. I didn’t realize the life she had up here.”

I pause, but Jake waves me off, forgiving my oversight on behalf of the whole town, and urging me to keep going with the gesture.

“Reid never showed. He promised he’d be there, but something came up at work. He said he’d be late, and then later, and later… and then he said he’d just see me at home. He didn’t even leave work early to meet me. He strolled in that night like it was just a regular day. He even poured himself a drink before saying hi to me.

“He got angry when I said I was upset. He said it wasn’t a real funeral, and I was being a drama queen. I’d never been more furious with him, and the sheer disrespect he had for my mom kind of opened my eyes to the terrible man he’d become — or maybe always was. All of our old issues, the way he tore me down constantly, everything came out of my mouth, and I couldn’t stop it. I’m not sure I wanted to.

“Something in him kind of snapped. He said the nastiest things about me.” I swallow and force myself to keep going before I chicken out again. Hot tears well in my eyes. “He said I was worthless, and Mom was a lunatic. He said it was good she died so she could stop dragging us down.”

Jake starts next to me, and I look up at him again. His eyes are pure fury, but they soften when they meet mine.

“What happened next?” he asks gently.

“I was shocked. I told him to get out. I think he might have even surprised himself because he just left, unlike today. By morning, he still hadn’t come back. I tried to call so I could tell him I was done, but he sent me to voicemail. So, I left his ring and a note explaining that it was over on his nightstand and shoved the key to the apartment under the door after I locked up. I took whatever would fit in my car and came here.”

A heavy silence fills the room for at least a full minute after I finish speaking.

“I should have punched him harder,” Jake finally says.