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“They were only able to get so close before because we were diminished,” Mom replies. “This year, it won’t be like that. We have everything planned out perfectly.”

“That’s great,” I say, not really caring. If it was just a festival to celebrate the hundredth year, that would be one thing, but of course they’re turning it into their own personal comeback story.

Dad starts talking about how all the family businesses are putting on their best for this. We own one of the few hotels in the town and people who come to stay for the festival are getting all kinds of perks. Jonah joins in, mentioning the other businesses our family has their fingers in, and how this has been one of our most successful years yet.

At least he’s focusing more on the business side of things than the ‘we have to crush the Carters’ side, but it’s still a lot of information. I nod in the places I’m supposed to, smiling when my mom smiles, but a lot of it just washes over me.

I’ve never been as invested as the rest of the family in the legacy and the business and all that. It’s one of the reasons why I left when I could, to do my own thing.

When there’s a break in the conversation, I excuse myself to the bathroom and just lean on the sink for a moment. I pull out my phone, staring down at Brynn’s contact. I haven’t texted her in years, but I didn’t delete her number either.

I want to reach out to her, to see how she’s settling in, but I don’t know what to say.

ME: Hey, how is it being back so far? My parents are already driving me nuts. I wish you were here⁠—

No, that’s too much. Delete.

ME: Is being back here driving you crazy yet? I keep thinking about how I wish I could have kissed you goodnight before we left, but⁠—

That’s not better. Delete.

ME: You want to know the real reason I still smell the same? Because you got this cologne for me back in the day, I couldn’t bear to stop wearing it.

Get it the fuck together, Ares. Delete again.

ME: Hey, hope you’re settling in okay and your parents aren’t driving you too crazy. Is it weird that so little has changed here since we left? I saw Tino’s ice cream place is still here, and even though it’s cold as hell outside, I’m craving a fudge sundae right now.

That’s going to have to be good enough.

I stare down at my phone, feeling a swirl of emotions. I knew being back here was going to do this to me, but I had no idea how it was going to feel. But there’s nothing I can really do about that now. So I just sigh and wash my hands before going to rescue my friends from my family.

The sooner we get out of here to head for the cabin, the better.

34

BRYNN

My parents’ house is the same as it always has been. One of the biggest houses in town, a sprawling two story with warm lights in the windows. They have decorations on the house outside, but the real work has been done inside the house. Every year they go and get a tree from the farm in town, and it sits there in the same corner it has every year since I can remember, decorated perfectly with a ton of presents under it already.

The house is warm and smells like cinnamon and cloves from the candles my mom likes to burn this time of year, and it’s all so familiar that it’s comforting at first.

And then my mom bundles past me, giving me a disapproving once over. “Well, don’t just stand there, Brynn. Take your shoes and coat off and come get settled.”

I take in a deep breath and then nod, forcing a smile. “I’m coming.”

I stow my shoes in the hall closet with my coat and walk into the living room where my siblings Hazel and Owen are already seated, eating little meatballs off toothpicks.

I suddenly remember I’m starving, so I plop down and fill up one of the little plates on the coffee table.

“Sounds like you had a hell of a time getting here,” Owen says.

“You don’t know the half of it,” I reply with a groan. “It was starting to feel like I was never going to make it.” I tell them about the bus we got on that broke down what feels like forever ago, and both my siblings make faces.

“At least you made it in one piece,” Hazel offers. “But you know, you wouldn’t have had to go through all that if you lived in town.”

“I know, Haze,” I say, trying to keep the annoyance out of my tone. I’ve been here for five minutes, and she’s already starting with this. “But I’m not going to move all the way back here just so I can be here when the festivals happen. Flying in will be fine.”

Hazel just shrugs. “If you say so.”