Three words. Three words that sent my life into a tailspin. Three words that terrified me.
He’s coming back.
I stared at Jorie, my closest friend, clutching my books tightly to my chest. My heart fired off like a cannon and nerves overwhelmed me.
“What did you say?” I whispered, ignoring the students around us in the hallway, all rushing to their next classes.
Jorie placed her hand on my arm. “Poppy, are you okay?”
“Yes,” I replied weakly.
“You sure? You’ve gone pale. You don’t seem okay.”
I nodded, trying to be convincing, and asked, “Who … who told you he was coming back?”
“Judson and Deacon,” she replied. “I was just in class with them and they were saying that his daddy has been sent back here by his company.” She shrugged. “This time, for good.”
I swallowed. “To the same house?”
Jorie winced, but nodded. “Sorry, Pops.”
I closed my eyes and took a calming breath. He was going to be next door again … his room directly opposite mine again.
“Poppy?” Jorie asked, and I opened my eyes. Her gaze was full of sympathy. “You sure you’re okay? You’ve only been back here a few weeks yourself. And I know what seeing Rune will do…”
I forced a smile. “I’ll be fine, Jor. I don’t know him anymore. Two years is a long time, and we haven’t spoken once in that time.”
Jorie frowned. “Pop—”
“I’ll be fine,” I insisted, holding up my hand. “I need to get to class.”
I was walking away from Jorie when a question popped into my head. I looked back over my shoulder at my friend, the only friend I had kept in touch with in the past two years. While everyone thought my family had left town to care for my mama’s sick aunt, only Jorie knew the truth.
“When?” I mustered the courage to ask.
Jorie’s face softened when she realized what I meant. “Tonight, Pops. He arrives tonight. Judson and Deacon are spreading the word for people to go to the field this evening to welcome him back. Everyone’s going.”
Her words felt like a dagger stabbing my heart. I hadn’t been invited. But then again, I wouldn’t be. I left Blossom Grove without a word. When I came back to this school, without being on Rune’s arm, I became the girl I always should have been—invisible to the popular crowd. The weird girl who wore bows in her hair and played the cello.
No one—except for Jorie and Ruby—had even cared I’d been gone.
“Poppy?” Jorie called again.
I blinked myself back to reality and noticed that the hallways were nearly empty. “You’d better get to class, Jor.”
She took a step toward me. “Will you be okay, Pops? I’m worried about you.”
I laughed a humorless laugh. “I’ve been through worse.”
I dipped my head and rushed to my class before I could see the sympathy and pity on Jorie’s face. I entered my math class, sliding into my seat just as the teacher began the lesson.
If someone were to ask me later what the class had been about, I wouldn’t have been able to tell them. For fifty minutes all I could think about was the last time I saw Rune. The last time he held me in his arms. The last time he pressed his lips against my lips. How we made love, and the look on his beautiful face as he was driven out of my life.
Idly, I wondered what he looked like now. He was always tall with broad shoulders, well built. But, as for the rest of him, two years was a long time for a person to change at our time of life. I knew that better than anyone.
I wondered if his eyes still appeared crystal blue in the bright sun. I wondered if he still wore his hair long, and I wondered if he still pushed it back every few minutes—that irresistible move that drove all the girls crazy.
And for a brief moment, I let myself wonder if he still thought about me, the girl next door. If he ever wondered what I was doing at any particular moment in time. If he ever thought back to that night. Our night. The most amazing night of my life.