“Come on.” He doesn’t say more but gets out of the SUV. I step out and walk to the front.
“Freak,” is yelled, and I turn to see a group of people I graduated with standing outside the Subway restaurant.
“Shut the fuck up,” Coal growls and starts walking toward them. I grab at his arm and pull him back.
“Ignore them,” I beg.
“No. Why do they call you that?” His eyes bore into mine. I want to tell him. I want to confess my sins. Why this thing between us can only be this weekend. Why I’m leaving this town and going where no one will know what I’ve done. But I can’t. The words are lodged in my throat.
“Please,” I say again as tears spring to my eyes. I know if he really wanted to get by me he could.
“Hey, Bridger,” a deep voice says from behind me.
Coal looks up and his body tenses. I turn around, keeping myself in front of him, and see the sheriff in his car. He looks at me and then across the parking lot to the group. Something crosses his face, and for a moment, I think it’s pity. But no one in this town has ever pitied me. After Leon had told everyone what I did, I became the freak. I became—I can’t even think the word. My body spasms in fear. Coal will leave me too when he finds out the truth.
“Hello, Kiera,” Sheriff Kullen says in a softer voice.
“Sheriff.” I nod at him.
“Hugh, is that you?” Coal says from behind me. He locks his arm around me and walks us toward the car. My body is tight against his, and the sheriff looks between us.
“Hey there,” they say and shake hands. I try to pull away from Coal and put that wall up between us that I need. It’s going to practically destroy me when he goes back to his life and I leave for Chicago.
“You and Kiera.” Sheriff Kullen chuckles. “Take care of her and keep those punks at bay,” he says, and I turn to look at him as Coal’s body tightens behind me.
“Why are they such jerks?” Coal demands an answer.
Sheriff Kullen looks at me, and I beg him with my eyes not to say anything. I can’t lose Coal yet.
“It’s just young adults being stupid assholes,” he says before he nods and pulls away from us.
“Hugh is the sheriff here?” Coal asks me.
“Yeah, he was voted in after his father died two years ago. He was hit by a drunk driver,” I say.
“You and Hugh know each other?”
“Only through work. I used to work at Denny’s as a server. He would come in.”
“Okay,” Coal says, and I feel the tension leave his body. He guides me up the stairs and into his mother’s gallery. I look around having never been in here. The dust covered mural on the wall calls to me and I walk over to it, my fingers lightly tracing it. Something about it feels special and I step back into Coal’s body.
“A friend of my mom’s did that. I think it was your mother. That’s why I brought you here,” he whispers against my ear. I look down in the corner and find the artist’s initials, MEJ. My body convulses and my knees buckle as I reach for it.
I cry out as the pain of seeing her work overtakes me.
“She was so talented. I took her away.” I sob as Coal holds me against his body. He slides down to the dirty floor holding me in his arms as I cry for a mother I never knew.
“I’ve got you, pixie. Let it out.” Coal’s words break through my pain. “It’s her, isn’t it?” he asks, and I nod. “Want to see another picture?”
I tip my head back and look up into his beautiful face. He’s given me something no one ever has. My mother.
“Yes.”
He stands and lifts me up in his arms and carries me over to a wall that leads to the back of the gallery. Pictures of artists that have presented their work here line the wall. My mother is in several of them alongside Coal’s mother. She had dark hair just like me, and green eyes that shine through the old pictures. Her lips were full like mine. Her body curvier and fuller. There’s a group shot with my father in the background. Anger etched on his face. I tremble and Coal holds me tighter.
“What is it? Is it too much? Do you want to leave?”
“He was angry even back then? They said he loved her and smiled only for her.”