Truce or Dare (Sweet Fortuity Book 1) (4 page)

A
small
, familiar building with the letters Dr. Kate M. Sterling, marked clearly in the front.

Bad idea
, I chanted in my head. I stood in front of the door for a good five minutes. Then deciding to just do it, otherwise I never would, I pushed the door open. Kate became a dentist years ago. Her lifelong dream, and she was living it.

She was hunched over reading a sheet of paper with a small smile on her face. She straightened and looked up, and her smile died.

I took a hesitant step forward. “Kate," I greeted softly.

Her eyes dropped back down quickly to the sheet of paper. “I heard them say you were back.”

“How are you?” I asked, walking closer.

“I heard about Gem. I’m sorry,” she said, a little gently this time.

“Thanks,” I replied.

“How about you?” she said, looking back up. “How’re you feeling?”

“I’m hanging on. Kate, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have just done that. I…” I stopped, trailing off. I stood there quietly for a little while, the words somehow unable to come out.

“You’re here for… a week?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know yet. I’m still trying to decide what to do from here.”

“I see,” she said, her lips spread thinly in disappointment, and then she went back to her sheet.

“I… I had to go,” I started to tell her. “I don’t know how to explain.”

She took her glasses off and slid them up her red hair to sit on her head, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Let me make this easy for you. Do you have an appointment?”

I felt like I’d been sucker-punched. She knew the answer to that. “No.” And the hell of it was, I knew I deserved it.

“I’m trying to work here. I have a patient coming in ten. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t come to talk about things that don’t matter anymore.”

We argued and hurt each other the most because we were so alike. We both couldn't function without our daily dose of caffeine, chocolate was our addiction (although Haley’s too, to a greater extent), and we had a passion for reading. She was my biggest fan, and with my grandmother included, that was saying a lot. We loved with our whole being and lost many things that mattered to us.

“I want to make it up to you,” I said.

Her eyes narrowed, and she leaned forward. “You don’t get to do that. You don’t get to just come back and demand that from me.”

My heart sank. “I hoped… I hoped we could talk.”

Just then I heard the door shut behind me.

“Mr. Porter,” Kate smiled at him behind me. “Please come in. I won’t be long.”

I felt the sting of her dismissal.

Turning her head just a little as she was about to leave, she raised a brow just slightly. “Did you have something else to say?”

I shook my head. I knew what this hole was, I just never put a name to it. I recognized it now for what it was– clawing emptiness.

Then I watched as she walked past me, a hand in her pocket.

* * *

I
made
the mistake of stopping over for coffee at Camelot’s Cupcakes and Cookies on the way home. One of the things I mourned about when I left was that I wouldn’t get to drink his coffee. It was the best in town, it held a kind of magic I hadn't found anywhere else.

As I swung the door open, I met the face of Abe, who owned the shop. He looked at me, extending his sympathy. “I’m sorry for your loss, Sherry,” he said gently.

As I ordered my usual, we talked about his business and my books for a little while. He gave me my coffee after a couple of minutes, and I took the warm cup excitedly between my hands. Then he asked curiously, "How long are you staying for?”

I forced another smile and I shrugged, because hell, I didn't know anymore.

* * *

I
t all came
down to a boiling point real fast. There were no flashing signs or red-signal warnings. Just zero at one point, then one-eighty at the next.

I suppose it was all those things stacked together.

I was driving when I got the phone call. At the time, it seemed perfectly innocuous. One offer of buying the property off me, because it was apparently the perfect place to build a small fast-food chain.

By the time the call ended, I felt something in me snap.

I know it hadn’t been intentional. I knew that, but the more people asked, the more I felt unwanted. Like it was a reminder that I didn't belong here anymore.

No one considered that I would stay, that I would move back. I hadn’t much considered what I was going to do weeks, months down the road. There was only the pressing expectation that I would eventually disappear again.

And then I realized several things.

No matter what I did, people would speculate. They could mask their remarks, their questions however way they wanted it, but it was buried beneath a layer of bullshit. They believed what they wanted to believe, and nothing I could say would change it.

They could push me aside, they could resent me, but I belonged here as much as they did. No matter what the past had molded me into, how much it had influenced my decision to leave, I missed everyone. Seeing them again, talking to them again, I realized that in staying away, I distanced myself from them too.

I had people who cared about me. People who genuinely wanted me to stay, and that alone was worth being here for.

* * *

“
Y
ou’re staying
?” Haley squealed, her initial disbelief starting to wear off. “For real?”

I had just finished telling her about it.

“Yeah,” I confirmed.

Paula wrapped me in a tight hug. “Welcome back, sweetheart.”

“That’s excellent news,” Haley said, jumping in excitement. “Oh my God, wait until people hear about it. And Chase! Oh my God. This is perfect.”

Okaay. “Perfect? Why do you have that look in… Never mind.”

The sparkle in her eyes told me she was definitely scheming something. I didn’t want to know, and so I didn't ask.

I
n an attempt to
go back to routine, I woke up early for another run. Places still looked largely the same, except for a few buildings that have moved or closed down. The newly set up diner had bloomed and become prosperous over the past two years.

Then I slid on my earphones, and hit play for an upbeat song, nodding my head to each beat. I felt good, and I hadn’t even started my run yet.

* * *

I
t happened a little while later
. A few of the early-risers waved at me as I ran past and I waved back. Then almost too soon, I was alone. It didn’t usually bother me.

After I ran the first mile, I began to feel that something was wrong. It was more of an instinct, an awareness I didn’t fully understand.

I had the strangest feeling that I was being watched.

I slowed down, just a little short of fully stopping, and managed to turn my head and look back.

I squinted my eyes, and just when I was going to shrug it off as nothing, I recognized a dark figure behind the large trunk of a tree, and it looked like the person was facing my direction. I blinked, making sure it was really there.

The figure was gone.

It freaked me out. Freaked-out me made me ran faster, and I pushed myself a little harder. I figured before I did another full loop, I’d head to Abe’s for some coffee.

By the time I finished my first cup, it was still at the back of my mind. The next time I was going for a run, maybe I could drag Haley along with me.

* * *

“
Y
ou’re staying
?” I heard from behind me, the voice behind me soft and familiar.

I wanted to get a few things, namely ice cream and maybe some nuts, so I and dropped by the grocery store. I’d just grabbed the stuff I wanted when I heard her.

A heart-shaped face, and green eyes stared back at me, and the combination was both beautiful and striking. Her blonde hair was down, swept over her shoulder.

“Eva?”

A high school friend who I was also fairly close to in the past. She was bubbly to the point that she was nearly always moving, whether she was shifting her foot or clasping her hands, as if she couldn’t contain all her energy.

Her lips were pressed together, looking like she was trying to hold back laughter.

“Hey," she said excitedly, "Haley mentioned it. I'm really happy to hear that." And all of a sudden, I was wrapped in a hug so tight. Before she moved back and clasped my hands.

“Hey,” I greeted back, her warmth infectious.

“How’re you?” she said gently.

I blew out a breath. "As okay as I can be, I suppose."

“You ever need to talk, just call. I bought your last book, by the way. Haven’t had a chance to read it yet though, but I will.”

“Hope you like it.”

If she didn’t, well, I hope I wasn’t around. I killed off someone in the last book, only he wasn’t really dead– he was getting another book.

“Listen, I have to go, but there’s the festival on September. Please, please say you’ll come.”

There was a desperation in her voice that made me feel like I needed to give her the answer she wanted.

“I’ll come,” I found myself saying.

Wait, what?

“Great!”

Melinda who lived three blocks away from me, was staring at us unabashedly, her head swinging back and forth between us two.

Eva, who was in line before me, gave a wave, before she left.

"You're staying?" Connor asked me in surprise as he scanned my items.

"I'm staying," I confirmed. I thanked him as he handed them over.

"City's not all that, huh." He was fishing, and he wasn't exactly subtle about it. But I had nothing to hide.

"This has always been home."

"Welcome back," he smiled at me warmly. “Glad to see you here again. Maybe gonna shut up those who keep speculatin’.”

I hoped so. But part of me had a feeling that the process would be slow. I took my stuff and thanked him. Just as I was about to do so, Melinda moved closer, pushing me back a little. “You’re back? For sure?” She sounded thrilled. Before I even to the chance to answer, she gasped, “Are you back together?”

"No,” I replied firmly, her questions rapid-fire.

“But you’re staying,” she told me what I already knew.

“Yes,” I said again, wondering where all this was going.

Her eyes glistened. Was she crying? “So you’ve worked it out.”

It felt a little like I was talking to a wall. She was insane. “No. No, it’s not about him. I want to do this for me.”

“Oh, I understand. You want to stay until you figure it out. You don’t have to say it, I can keep a secret.”

I gave Connor a look, and I noticed he was trying not to laugh. Was she for real?

She was nearly skipping on the way out, as if she’d just learned something she couldn’t wait to share with the word.

“A little nutty but she means well,” I heard Connor say, who looked like he was fighting a smile.

* * *

I
was making a writing playlist
, when Haley knocked at nine pm. She poked her head in. I rubbed at my eyes a little, thinking I probably need a break. “Hey. What’s up?”

“Wanna go for lunch tomorrow? Wes and Kate said they can make it. Like a mandatory welcome back party.”

“Sure,” I replied absently. “I went to see Kate yesterday. I think she’s still mad at me. I don’t know what to do.”

“Just give her time. It's going to be fine,” she said with a little more optimism than I felt.

I counted on it.

She was wrong.