“Tack. Why didn’t you tell me? How did you...? I thought the janitor threw it out or a possum made a nest out of it.”
“No,” he says with his eyes focused on me. “That’s not what happened. I saw it there that day and yeah, I was an asshole, I walked past it when I knew it was for me and I just kept walking home with everyone from school and then it started to storm.”
“I remember that. It was the first real hailstorm we ever had and the flash flooding. My mom got stuck.”
“Right, well, I went back in the rain and the hail and I got the book. I’ve always had it. And I’ll have you know I read it. All of it. More than a few times over the years. It’s beautiful.”
“You’re beautiful,” I say. “I thought you had forgotten about it. I thought you had forgotten me.”
“I could never forget you. I should have showed you how important you were to me in high school. I couldn’t do it then but I’m able to do it now.” He puts his hand over mine.
“I’m sorry. I came back with all this bullshit attached to me. I thought I had to come back here and show you the person I’ve become. I should have told you I had planned to sell The Hideaway from the beginning but then everything changed and...”
“The Fourth of July?” he asks, his eyes searching mine.
“Yes. For you too?”
He nods and we both smile.
“I tried to fight it,” I say. “But I knew once I got in your truck in Pittstown that it would take all of my strength not to fall for you again. When we kissed at the stream I thought that was the end of it. I would be able to get you out of my system.”
Tack chuckles softly and the laughter goes straight into me through my heart. It almost makes me giggle. “I know it was silly to think I could sleep a few yards away from you and turn off everything I was feeling but then at the festival with Jules everything felt so right and I stopped resisting it.”
“It felt like we were a family. I felt it too. I think Jules did also.”
The mention of Jules makes me happy but also dispirited when I think about what kind of role model Tack must think I would be for them. “Tack, I should have told you the reason I bought the inn and that I was only planning to be here for the summer. I had opportunities to come clean but I was too caught up in feeling all these crazy things for you that I’ve been wanting to feel for so many years. I didn’t want to spoil anything. I should have been honest with you. I know you raise Jules with openness and honesty. Are you sure you want someone like me to be part of that?”
“Vince,” he says, shaking his head at me but still smiling. “For being the smartest person I know, sometimes your logic is pretty messed up. Don’t you understand? In school you were your own person and that’s what’s important to me. That’s why I liked you so much. Respected you more than anyone else I’ve ever known. Yes, I wish you had been more up front with me but I know your heart. I would be honored to have you share it with me and for us all to make a family.”
The thought of being part of their family fills me with so much joy I think I might explode but I need to be sure this is what Tack wants. “I thought you didn’t trust me and I thought you couldn’t love me.”
“I know I said that I didn’t trust you but I was angry and hurt. I lost you once and the thought of losing you again made me lash out. But not being able to love you? You’re wrong. Loving you is the easiest thing I’ve ever done. I’ve loved you ever since you wouldn’t put your book down out by the fence. You think I stopped loving you when I kept my distance but it was the opposite.”
“What do you mean?”
“The further and further you got from me the more I loved you deep in my heart. When you came back that dam just burst and the years of waiting just melted into a deeper connection.”
He puts his hands on my cheeks and holds my head steady so we are looking right into each other’s hearts.
“I love you, Vince.”
The words.
He says them softly but they sound like trumpets ringing in my ear. I grab his hands and look into his eyes. “Tack, I love you. I’ve always loved you.”
The setting sun melts into the river and orange and red streaks become purple and amber. In the distance I can see the inn and in front of it the last of the evening light dances across the water making a random path of sparkling diamonds. Tack’s face glows in the soft pink light. He grabs my hand and turns toward me. I take my other hand and carefully brush a few stray bangs off his forehead. I linger on the view of his face for just a few seconds. In his eyes I see the guy I loved in high school but I also see the man I want to build my life with.
I tilt my head as he tilts his and our mouths melt into each other’s.
I’m finally home.
Epilogue
Jules
“Come on,” I yell. It feels like we have been waiting forever.
“Be patient, Jules. He’ll be out as soon as he’s ready,” my dad says and goes back to the kitchen where he is making some pumpkin muffins that already smell incredible.
I run over to the window and look down Main Street. From the top floor of the inn, I can sort of see people already lining up on the street getting ready for the big race. It’s hard to get a really good view because the new pride flags Vince bought are so huge.
I have the perfect pumpkin waiting for him on the table outside his and Dad’s room. Then I think maybe Vince needs something sparkly so I run to my room and grab a purple feather boa that has some glitter on it. I wore it in the rain once so it looks a little funny but Vince won’t care.
“The race is starting soon,” I say and knock on their bedroom door. “Maybe you need more sparkle.”
“I’m just about ready. I don’t know how people walk in these things. Ouch,” Vince says through the closed door.
Dad stops cooking and comes over to join me by the door. “On the count of three,” he says. Then we both say, “One. Two. Three.”
Vince opens the door, and I’m immediately stunned by how beautiful he looks. He is wearing a red sequined dress that I picked out from a thrift store in Doylestown, a long black wig like a witch but not scary, and the pair of high heels my dad bought him over the summer. He’s wearing some smoky eye shadow and shiny lip gloss. He looks so pretty. I like the way his beard looks against the sequins which is weird because I hate the way it scratches when he hugs me. Today it looks good.
Vince walks toward us and he stumbles. My dad immediately goes to catch him so he doesn’t fall over. “You look beautiful.” Dad looks at Vince and they kiss. “Oh, and you taste like bubble gum.”
“I loaned him my favorite gloss,” I say to my dad. “But enough of the mushy stuff.” I don’t mind them kissing but they do it all the time and we have a race to get to.
“Vince,” I say very seriously. “I’ve been going to this race since I was a baby. Right, Dad?”
“That’s right,” he says, smiling his goofy smile at me.
“So believe me: you want as big a pumpkin as you can carry that’s not too heavy. The small ones are hard to decorate and they just slip right out of your hands. Like Ms. Sanchez last year.”
“Oh, yeah, from Paw Time. Barely made it past the start. Dropped her pumpkin and broke a heel before she got to the top of the hill. It was a real tragedy,” Dad says.
From the window we can hear the race official calling participants. I stick my head out to make sure I can hear her. “We need all racers for the Twentieth Annual High Heels Drag Race to meet at the starting line at the bottom of Mechanic Street. The race is about to begin.” I look down but it’s hard to see around the waving pride flags that hang from the second floor. They almost take up the whole building. I move my head to catch a glimpse and I can see the crowd is getting bigger. There are men in dresses, women in tuxedos, men in tuxedos and women in dresses. Then there are a bunch of people who jus
t look fabulous. I see Kevin and Evan without Paul and they see me and wave back. I look straight down and I see the top of Aunt Toula’s head and then Anita. Anita’s chair is decorated with silk flowers and streamers for the race. Then I see my mom with Ines, holding hands.
“Mom! Mom!” I scream so she can hear me over the crowd.
She looks up. “Jules! Get away from that window this instant or I am coming up there and taking you home.”
“Fine,” I say and close the window. I wasn’t anywhere even close to falling out but that’s Mom.
I grab Vince’s hand. “Come on. Come on,” I say but he is so big it’s hard to really move him when you are so much littler.
“Are you sure you are ready for this?” Dad asks Vince. He seems kind of worried about the answer.
“Ready? If you told me a year ago I’d be carrying a pumpkin racing up Mechanic Street in a wig, a dress and high heels, I would have told you you were out of your mind. But now I can’t think of anything I want to do more, right here at home, with my family.”
Vince’s arm reaches for my dad to hug him and they start kissing.
Again.
* * *
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Jude rides a motorcycle, kisses hard and gives Iris the perfect distraction from her mess of a life. But come September, Iris is still determined to get out of this zero-stoplight town—unless Jude can give her a reason to stay.
Keep reading for an excerpt from The Girl Next Door by New York Times bestselling author Chelsea M. Cameron.
The Girl Next Door
by Chelsea M. Cameron
Chapter One
Iris
I smelled the ocean before I saw it. I took the long way back; the scenic route. Anything to prolong the inevitable. Turning my car onto a back road, I sighed as I rounded a corner and drank in the view of blue waves crashing over the rocky shore, coating the rocks and turning them dark. This was my home, whether I wanted to admit it or not. I’d started my life here in Salty Cove, and now I was back.
All too soon, I reached the turn for my parents’ road. My road now. It took everything in me not to start crying when I pulled into the driveway and shut off the car. Time to face my new reality.
“We’re here,” I said to the snoring gray lump in a crate in the backseat. “Can you please wake up and comfort me right now?”
With that, my Weimaraner, Dolly Parton, raised her head and blinked her sweet blue eyes at me.
“Thank you.”
I got out of the car and went into the back to let her out of the crate. She jumped out and shook herself before sniffing the air.
“I know, you can actually smell the ocean here. It’s not covered up by city smell. At least one of us will be happy with this situation.”
Dolly started snuffling the ground and then found a spot to pee while I looked up at the house. Why did it look smaller? I hadn’t been here for months and in that time, it had shrunk. The white paint peeled in places, and the flower boxes on the wraparound porch needed watering. I hoped the garden out back wasn’t in as bad a shape.
The side door opened and out came my mother carrying a chainsaw. She didn’t look at me immediately, but then she did and her face broke out into the most brilliant smile that made her look years younger.
“Hey, Mom,” I said.
She put the chainsaw down on the porch before opening her arms. “Welcome home, baby girl.”
I forced myself not to cringe at the nickname. I was twenty-two, hardly a baby at this point.
Still, I let myself be folded into her arms, and I drank in the familiar scent of fresh-baked bread and fresh-cut wood. She rubbed my back up and down and then leaned down to pet Dolly, who lost her shit and lapped up the attention.
“A tree came down last week, so I’ve been cutting it up. Come on in and see your father. You can bring your stuff in later. He’s been antsy to see you all day.”
I looked back at my car, which was packed to the roof with all the shit that I had left after I’d sold most of everything in a last-ditch attempt to cover my rent.
Mom put her arm around me and started filling me in on town gossip, but a loud rumbling distracted me. I turned my head in time to watch a sleek black motorcycle pull into the driveway next door.
“Is that—” I started to say, but then the rider got off the bike and pulled off their helmet, shaking out their short dark hair.
“Oh, yes, that’s Jude. Her parents moved down to Florida and left her the house.”
Jude Wicks. I hadn’t seen her since she graduated four years ahead of me in school.
Jude didn’t glance in my direction as she covered the bike, jogged up the steps, and slammed the front door of the house. I jumped at the sound.
Dolly whined and I looked down at her.
“Her parents left her the house?” I asked as Mom and I walked up the steps and into the house. We didn’t have air-conditioning, so fans were doing all the work, just blowing around the semi-moist sea air.
Mom was distracted from answering by Dad yelling at her from his recliner. He’d hurt his back working for the power company for thirty-five years and was retired. They relied on Mom’s income as a real estate agent and substitute teacher.
“Iris is here,” Mom called to him.
“Baby girl!” he yelled when I came around the corner.
“Hi, Dad.”
I went over to give him a huge hug. Dolly immediately put her chin in his lap and whined for attention.
“Hello, Dolly,” Dad said with a chuckle, setting his coffee down next to a stack of library books beside his chair.
“What are you reading now?” I asked.
He held up the book he’d rested on the arm of the chair to keep his place. “Started reading these young adult books. This one’s about these kids who are planning a heist to steal this magic stuff. You can have it when I’m done.”
Mom poked her head in and asked me if I wanted some coffee. “Sure, thanks.”
I sat down on the couch as Dolly curled up at his feet and closed her eyes.
Mom brought me a cup of black coffee and some creamer. I added enough so that the coffee turned from black to khaki. Perfect.
“How was your drive?” Mom asked.
We caught up on my trip, the fact that she’d cleared out my room for me, and what else was happening in town. Mostly it was about who my parents knew that had died, what they had died from, and talking shit about a few while simultaneously hoping they rested in peace.
Less than an hour at home and I already wanted to escape, but I was stuck here, at least for now.
I had to unpack my car, find a place for Dolly’s food and water bowls, and settle into my room. Luckily for me, my brother, who was ten years older, had vacated it a long time ago to go to college.
My bed was small, but Mom had bought me a new mattress recently, so there was that. Still, it was a twin bed, when I’d been sleeping in a queen in my apartment. That had been left on the street. No one wanted someone else’s mattress. The bed frame had been taken by Natalie, one of my former coworkers. I missed her already, and needed to text her that I’d made it home safe. She was so worried about me moving back to Maine that she’d literally bought me bear spray. I told her that the likelihood that I would die from a bear attack was slim to none, but she wouldn’t listen.
The walls started to close in on me as I looked at the tiny bed. Sure, I’d had to share my old apartment with someone I didn’t like, but my bedroom had been twice this size, and I’d had two big, beautiful windows that looked out on a courtyard filled with flowers and butterflies and twittering birds. Maine had all those things
, but it wasn’t the same.
To add insult to injury, none of my sheets or blankets were going to fit the bed. I added that to the list of things I needed to get with money I didn’t have.
Dolly followed me into the room and climbed up on the bed. She took up most of it.
“I’m going to end up on the floor,” I said to her. She closed her eyes and huffed out a sigh.
I sat on the edge of the bed and looked around. At least the posters I’d had on the walls in high school were gone, and the room was freshly painted white. My window looked out toward the ocean, which sparkled at me beyond a row of trees. At least I could see the ocean every day here.
My phone buzzed with yet another text. Natalie. I sent her a quick message that I’d arrived safe and had not been mauled by a bear. I ignored the message from Anna, my old roommate, about some dishes I’d apparently left behind and if it was okay for her to have them. Whatever. She could knock herself out. She’d stolen a bunch of my other shit, so I wasn’t sure why she was contacting me about this. I considered blocking her number so I’d never have to speak to her again.
I reached out and stroked Dolly’s velvet head. She leaned into my touch. “What are we gonna do?” I asked. She didn’t answer.
Later that night, after I unpacked my car and had dinner that consisted of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and a fiddlehead salad, I sat on the couch as Mom watched a reality talent show and Dad read.
This was my life now.
“What are your plans for tomorrow?” Mom asked during a commercial break.
“I’m not sure.”
I hadn’t thought any further than today. Everything else was a blank. I was always the girl with the plan, but now, I was adrift. An unmoored boat, lost at sea with no hope of rescue.
“I was talking to Cindy Malone the other day and they’re hiring for summer help at The Lobster Pot,” Mom said. “You did that in high school. I know she’d hire you. At least it would give you something during the summer until you can find something more permanent if you need to.”
The Hideaway Inn Page 19
