The guy’s a total fucking sweetheart. I miss him so much, and it’s hard to remember how I survived without him. I send him a quick thanks before realizing I need to forage food before school. I grab my bag from the counter, making sure I have my purse and keys, and head out to the garage. This morning calls for a breakfast burrito,STAT.
I jump in the car and head toward the only place in town that does them. It doesn’t take long for me to weave through the early morning traffic and hit up Raleigh’s family restaurant, smiling at his sister as I enter. The food smells beyond amazing once I have the take-out bag in hand, so I take it out to my car and basically inhale it before heading to school. I pull into the space beside Indi to find her waving at me like a kid on a sugar high. I guess she had a good night.
Climbing from the car, I hear her door slam, and then there’s a chocolatey, whipped cream delight of a coffee floating in front of my face. I grin, taking it from her as she sips on hers and bounces on the spot. “Morning, angel face!”
I laugh at how peppy she is this morning. “Morning, cupcake?”
“You seem cheerier than you have been,” she comments as she links arms with me, and I decide to keep the Lincoln thing to myself for now. I don’t understand it, and I don’t trust it. The last thing I want is her to think it was something I instigated. She’s starting to see the truth of who he is and likes it about as much as I do, which is to say, not at all. I’m not going to poke the mama bear.
“I slept better. And I had a breakfast burrito. What’s not to be peppy about?”
She beams at me as we enter the school. “You mean other than these unhallowed halls? Absolutely nothing.”
* * *
The week has been strangely quiet, and since Indi’s heading off campus for lunch with her mom, I decided to spend my break in the Music rooms. The longer I spend being back here in Echoes Cove, the more I want to be around music.
After my dad died, I was a little worried I’d never play again, and while I’ve played piano, I haven’t picked up a guitar yet.
Today, that’s going to change.
I pick up the acoustic that sits on a stand in the corner of the room and drop onto one of the stools with it in my hands. The smooth of the wood and the rough of the strings transports me to a different time entirely. I go all the way back to the time my dad first gave me a guitar. I revisit learning different chords from him. To the first time he asked me to play a track with him for one of the songs on his album… The first time in a studio. So many memories flash behind my eyes, and I smile despite the tear that rolls down my cheek.
I pick at the strings. The sounds of the first song I wrote with him echo around the room, and I close my eyes, going back to a time before I felt broken. A time when I wasn’t so sad. A time before…
I let the music take me away to another place, the sting of the metal strings a comfort I’d forgotten. The acoustics in this room remind me of some of the places we’ve played before. It’s like I’m back there, with him, and with my eyes closed, I can pretend that’s exactly where I am.
I lose myself to the feelings, the music, and the memories. It isn’t until the bell rings that I open my eyes and see that Finley is standing there, silently watching me, and I startle.
How wrapped up was I to not notice his presence that almost chokes me now? He stalks up to me, and the stool I’m sitting on puts me almost eye to eye with him. He clasps my cheek in his hand, shocking the hell out of me as he rests his forehead on mine.
I close my eyes at the feeling of him this close, and my heart races. I have no idea what this is or why I’m so calm about it, but there’s something so serene about the look in his eyes that makes me sit here with him.
It only lasts a few seconds before he pulls back, stepping away and looking torn.
“I’m sorry,” is all he says before he stalks away, leaving me so far beyond confused my world spins.
There are too many things he could be sorry for at this point, but that sorry felt different.
Like goodbye.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Girls’ trip, baby!” Indi practically sings as she slides in her socks across the hardwood of the entry hall. Thank God Smithy isn’t here to see her nearly slam into the artwork on the walls. He’d have a conniption. It’s officially Labor Day weekend. I’m a little sad he still isn’t back yet, but I understand that he’s looking after his family.
This past week has been one of the strangest in my life. There hasn’t been any bullying, no comments have been made behind my back, and somehow the deep fake sex tape has been wiped from existence. And Lincoln has spent every night in my bed, sneaking in through the window each night and disappearing before I wake.
Some nights I went to sleep without him there, and the only way I knew he was there was his scent on my pillow the next day.
Stranger yet, the three of them haven’t said a word to me all week long. It’s as if they’re pretending I don’t exist. It’s not much different from when I arrived, just minus the bullshit from the rest of the student body.
Indi dances around in the doorway like an absolute loon, but she brings me so much joy. I laugh at her antics and excitement. “Three whole days of no school, no Echoes Cove, and nothing but utter relaxation. What’s not to be excited about?”
“Absolutely nothing!” She slips her feet into her Chucks before spinning to face me. “Let’s go!”
I grab my weekend bag, keys, and phone before double checking that the doors are all locked up. Once I’m sure everything’s good to go, I grab my handbag, enable the alarm, and haul ass out of the house before locking the front door too.
We jump into her Wrangler, set up our road trip playlist, and prepare ourselves for the couple hour drive inland to the resort.