Break Away (39 page)

As I turned off the highway and crossed into Beaufort, all the relief I felt when I first got off the plane vanished and my stomach began twisting into knots. When I saw the oak trees draped with Spanish moss, the historic antebellum houses and the river lined with marsh, I was flooded with memories that made my heart ache. Now that I was actually here it was easy to remember why I fled to New York and stayed away for so long. Everything about this place made me think of him.

Jake.

I took a deep breath in an attempt to calm myself down, and reminded myself why I was here. My best friend Susie was getting married this summer, and as her maid of honor, I was determined to help her with the preparations and spend as much time with her as I could before the big day. I had also agreed to keep an eye on my father’s law firm while he and my mother were away.

The reminder that my parents wouldn’t be home gave me some relief. At least I would have some time to myself and wouldn’t have to put on a show the second I walked through the door. They assumed that the only reason I hadn’t been back all this time was because I was so busy with school and my summer internships; which was they’d been so understanding about all the missed holidays, and having to come visit me in the city instead. They would never understand the real reason for my reluctance. After all, it had been four years.
Four damn years
! Frankly, I didn’t really understand it myself. If someone told me that they’d avoided going home for that long after a breakup, I would probably have them sent in for a psych evaluation.

At least with my parents out of town I would have a chance to get a grip on myself and figure out how to handle being here. Besides, I had no idea what Jake was doing, or if he was even in town anymore. I could handle this. In a few short months I would be leaving Beaufort behind. Again.

Pulling into my parent’s driveway, I could see that not much had changed. The home I’d grown up in was exactly as I remembered it –white with dark blue plantation shutters, and a two-story front porch that ran along the first and second levels– all of which was sitting beneath the tall oaks and magnolias. This had always been my haven, the one place I could always find peace. But even here I was haunted. Still, it felt good to be home.

I hauled my bags up the front steps and retrieved the spare key from its hiding place in the flower pot. After fiddling with the old lock for a few seconds, I swung open the front door and walked inside, pausing in the foyer to look around at the house I hadn’t been in for so many years.

Aside from redecorating the living room and adding a few new pieces of artwork, it was mostly unchanged. I stepped into the den and inhaled the faint scent of cigar smoke that lingered in the air, even though my father had been away. The bookshelves were filled with the brown leather-bound law books that my father had inherited from his father before him, and the same elegant, clear glass bottles lined the bar, filled with pricey amber malts and whiskeys that my father sipped nearly every evening as he puffed on a cigar. Everything about this room reminded me of him, and I almost felt myself beginning to miss my parents. Almost.

I walked over to the old grand piano that sat in the corner and ran my fingers over the smooth wood, leaving a trail in the dust that had collected on it. I’d never once seen anyone play it, and I often wondered why my parents kept it there, sitting unused and wasting space. When I was younger I’d tried to teach myself how to play, but it wasn’t long before I realized that the piano just wasn’t for me.

After a few minutes of wandering around my childhood home, I brought my bags upstairs to my bedroom. Walking in, it was as though no time had passed. It was completely untouched and exactly as I had left it all those years ago. I knew that my parent’s house had more rooms than they could possibly need, but after being away so long, I still half expected to find my stuff hauled out and replaced with gym equipment or a man cave, or something. It was nice that they had left it for me, and I was reminded of how much they cared about me. I knew they had missed me, and for a split second I started feeling guilty for being so relieved about their absence.

Dropping my bags down, I swung open the French doors to the balcony for some fresh air before lying down on my bed to rest. As I studied the floral pattern of the duvet that I hadn’t seen since I was a teenager, I felt my eyelids began to droop closed. All the traveling combined with my emotional turbulence had left me exhausted.

“Noraaaaaa!!!!”

I awoke with a start when I heard a voice outside. I glanced out the window at the changing color of the sky as dusk began to fall.

“Nora Montgomery! Get down here now!”

Standing up groggily, I walked out to the balcony and looked below to see the familiar blonde hair and cheery smile of my best friend, Susie.

“SUSIE! What are you doing here?” I yelled down to her.

“Here to see my best friend, duh.”

“Don’t move I’ll be right down,” I said as I rushed back out through my bedroom and down the stairs to meet her.

Opening the front door, I greeted Susie with a big hug. “I thought you weren’t coming back until tomorrow?” I asked her as we walked through the house into the kitchen.

“Ethan and I finished our packing early so we got in yesterday,” she answered. “How does it feel to be home? I really cannot believe it’s been so long since you’ve been back!”

“Yeah, it’s been a long time.” I went to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of white wine. “I’ve really missed it here,” I told her truthfully as I poured two glasses.

We sipped our wine and caught up on everything from the few months since we’d last seen each other. Even though I hadn’t been home since I left for school in New York, Susie and I always made time to spend together. She would visit me in New York, or I would make the trip to Virginia where she and her boyfriend Ethan (now her fiancé), had gone to school at the University of Virginia. We’d all been close growing up. Susie and I have been inseparable since the age of four, and Ethan and Jake grew up next door to each other. When Susie and Ethan got together in high school, it wasn’t too long before Jake and I started seeing each other, too. After that we did just about everything together.

“Well, I have to get home to have dinner with my parents,” Susie said as she stood up. “But you and I are going out tonight. No excuses!”

“Okay,” I laughed. “But wouldn’t you and Ethan rather have some alone time?”

“No way!” she said. “I think we can handle a night apart. Besides, he’s already going out tonight with, uh… his friend.”

I smiled at her attempt of a cover-up. As though I didn’t know which “friend” she was talking about. Susie was good about not mentioning Jake. I had made it pretty clear that I didn’t want to talk about him, and over the years she had stopped trying to bring him up in conversation. I was grateful for that. However, her little slip-up did reveal that Jake was still here in town, and hadn’t moved away like I’d wished. Beaufort was a small town, and my stomach dropped at the mere idea of running into him. I’d known I would have to see him at the wedding–he was Ethan’s best friend–but I’d hoped that I would have some time to mentally prepare before then.

“I’ll pick you up at 8:30!” Susie yelled out her car window as she started pulling out of the driveway. “Wear something sexy!”

I took a step back to get a better look at my work. It wasn’t much, but it was getting there.

Over the last few months I’d started to work on renovating my grandfather’s fishing cabin. Well, it was more like a shack right now, but it wouldn’t be when I was done with it. It had been falling down for years, and my parents had finally given me the go-ahead to work on it. I’d always loved this place. Even though the building was battered and run down, it was tucked away in the woods and sat right on the lake with a little dock for swimming and fishing.

Throughout my entire childhood and teenage years, I’d spent a lot of time in this place. But, as much as I’d enjoyed being here, I stopped coming a few years ago and hadn’t been back until I started the renovation. When Ethan announced that he and Susie were getting married, I decided to finally fix this place up so I could let them use it. We had all spent a lot of time here back then, and I knew how much they loved it here. This place held a lot of memories… memories that still made my throat tighten and my chest ache, even after four years.

I met Nora during the spring of my senior year of high school, shortly after Ethan and Susie got together. Nora and Susie were a year behind us in school, so even though I’d seen her around, I didn’t know much about her. All I really knew was that she was a Montgomery–rich, smart, privileged–definitely not the type of girl that would hang around a “bad boy” like Jake Harris. Not that I’d ever done anything really bad, just stupid teenage boy crap. But it was a small town, and when someone labeled you a bad seed it stuck and everyone had a tendency to believe it.

When Ethan first tried to get Nora and me together I had scoffed and told him he was crazy.
“Why would I want to get with a snob like that?”
I’d said. As much as I loved Ethan, I wasn’t going to pretend to be interested in some random girl just so we could all hang out together. Not my style. Especially not when there were a shitload of other girls I could be giving my attention to. Ones that were much more my speed. Why have just one girl when you can have lots of girls? That was my philosophy.

Then, one especially hot day in April, Ethan and I decided to come up here to the fishing cabin. We were hanging out on the dock drinking beers when he told me that he’d invited Susie and Nora. Before I had time to protest, I saw them coming out of the woods and heading our way. Ethan ran over to Susie but Nora just kept walking towards me. Without saying a word to me, she pulled her tank top over her head and shimmied out of her cutoff denim shorts, revealing a tiny black bikini underneath. She walked past me to the edge of the dock, dove right into the water, surfaced, and then swam back over and gracefully climbed out. I’d been watching her since she arrived, and as she spread out her towel and sat down, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She glistened in the sun as beads of water slid down her tan skin, her rich brown hair falling down her back and clinging to her perfect body.

She was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

When her hazel eyes finally met mine, she flashed me a grin and said,
“So, Jake Harris… are you just gonna sit there and stare, or are you gonna offer me a beer?”

I couldn’t help but smile as I remembered it.

From that moment on, I was totally hooked. I’d known she was different. Nothing like I’d assumed, but still unlike any girl I’d ever met. Within minutes, I’d grabbed my phone to text whichever girl I had plans with that night and cancel. I didn’t make any more plans after that, and I stopped noticing other girls altogether.

Until that point, I’d never really pursued a girl before. At least not for anything more than a couple dates or a hookup, so I’d had no idea what I was doing. All I knew was that I wanted to be around her. I wanted to know her.

Unfortunately, I had no clue how to go about it. The girls I was used to were easy… in every sense of the word. Nora was different. She didn’t hang all over me, making up excuses to touch me any chance she got, or bat her eyelashes and laugh at everything I said, even when it wasn’t remotely funny. Instead, she called me on my bullshit, teased me when I deserved it, and didn’t flinch about getting a little dirt under her fingernails. She challenged me. And I loved it.